Pragmatism coswrk free essay sample

According to Pragmatism, the truth or meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences rather than in anything more metaphysical. Basically, it can be summarized by the phrase whatever works, is likely true. Because reality changes, whatever works will also change thus, truth must also change over time. This means that no one can claim to possess any final or ultimate truth. Pragmatism became popular with American philosophers and even the American public because f its close association with modern natural and social sciences.The scientific worldview was growing in both influence and authority; pragmatism, in turn, was regarded as a philosophical sibling or cousin who was believed to be capable of producing the same progress with inquiry into subjects like morals and the meaning of life. Pragmatism says the following about knowledge; Pragmatism considers experience as the source of attaining knowledge. Human being receives knowledge through experience based activity and ideas by acting and reacting with human environment. Pragmatists consider experimental methods as the best means of attaining knowledge. Pragmatism affirms that absolute knowledge is impossible but one can get functional knowledge needed for a particular situation or time Of need. Here knowledge and action are portrayed as two separate spheres with an absolute or transcendental truth above and beyond any sort of inquiry organisms use to cope with life. Pragmatism challenges this idealism by providing an ecological account of knowledge: inquiry is how organisms can get a grip on their environment.Real and true are functional labels in inquiry ND cannot be understood outside of this context. Epistemological implications of pragmatism It reminds teachers that meaningful education can be used for survival in society. Teachers should arrange the social and group learning and moderate the interaction between members of the group to ensure constructive discussions. Knowledge is not static but it is to be experimentally used as a starting point for new knowledge therefore teachers should always refresh their knowledge and skills.Teachers should endeavourer to use the scientific method. This approach if used is the best for attaining true knowledge. There is need for a learner-centered approach; the teacher should cater for the interests of the students. Learning is likely to be richer and lasts longer if it stems out of the pupils own needs and problems. Pragmatism of Metaphysics Pragmatism regards the material world as true. It regards human being as the supreme person. He is a social being and his development is possible only in the society. To it this world is the combination of different elements. It considers truth as changeable. Truth is man-made. There is a change in its form and concept. Pragmatism believes in the power of God if the existence f God is helpful in the growth of human being otherwise not. It lays stress on action and its consequences. It considers reality as a process of the completion of a task. Pragmatism argues that the universe should be explained scientifically and practically that is to say, an idea should be accepted or rejected in terms Of its application practically or when it leads to achievement of the desired goal. The following are the metaphysical implications of pragmatism A broad and flexible curriculum is recommended where learning experience should be well organized. Education should be unconnected to experience where the child should the world that affects them and teaching and learning should be viewed as a process of development and continuous reconstruction of experience where experience should be the subject matter of education. Students should not be looked at as doomed but the teacher should work tirelessly towards changing the childs nature effectively through education process under given condition.Education should not isolate man but make him more active in society. Education should promote social efficiency. Pragmatism of Axiology and values Pragmatism does not believe in eternal values. Man himself creates values. Values are not predetermined. Pragmatists consider consequences as the basis of selection of all types of values. If the values are useful their selection is appropriate otherwise not. In the context of religion, Dewey has said, God is active relation between Ideal and Reality; they consider the use of intelligence in the solution of problems.Pragmatism sees no fundamental difference between practical and theoretical reason, nor any ontological difference between facts and values. Both facts and values have cognitive intent: knowledge is what we should believe; values are hypotheses about what is good in action. Pragmatist ethics is broadly humanist because it sees no ultimate test of morality beyond what matters for us as humans. Good values are those for which we have good reasons.A notable contemporary pragmatist aestheticism is Joseph Marigolds. He defines a work of art as a physically embodied, culturally emergent entity, a human utterance that isnt an ontological quirk but in line with other human activity and culture in general. He emphasizes that works of art are complex and difficult to fathom, ND that no determinate interpretation can be given. Axiological implications of pragmatism Since there are no clear lines between good and evil, the teacher should never be fixed.Sound moral education in schools will in large measure depend on teachers ability to consult the social mind constantly. Since values are relative, teachers should put emphasis on the effectiveness in coping with an even changing experience. The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. There is need to revise the curriculum and you should never teach learners dead subjects and the coacher should emphasize social values and more importantly stress on democracy, orderliness and cooperation.Pragmatism of physical education and sports Pragmatists believe that the curriculum should be focused on the child and not on facts; they remind us about the role of education in society, and about the realization of the deep roots of division of our bodily and mental functions. The opportunities offered by the pragmatists approach to education can help us to improve Agendas education, particularly physical education, and thus to use this to improve the society. It has the following implications in physical education The teacher should act as an instructor of physical education.Teachers should guide students according to their ability. Experience of activities is the primary point of pragmatism Phy sical education class should be conducted within the learners environment but not in isolation. Learners individual problems must be considered when organizing physical education activities. There should be a variety of activities to bring about creativity in sports. The teachers should employ good teaching methods of physical education for example practical approach. Teachers should help students to come up with problem solving.Pragmatism of Logic The three most important pragmatists are American philosophers Charles Sanders Price, William James, and John Dewey. Price was primarily interested in scientific method and mathematics; his objective was to infuse scientific thinking into philosophy and society, and he believed that human comprehension of reality was becoming ever greater and that human communities were becoming increasingly progressive. For Price, the only rational way to increase knowledge was to form mental habits that would test ideas through observation, experimentation, or what he called inquiry. Logical positivists emphasize the importance of scientific verification, rejecting the assertion of positivism that personal experience is the basis of true knowledge. Sesames original contributions to the theory called pragmatism, a term first used by the American logician C. S. Price. James generalized the pragmatic method, developing it from a critique of the logical basis of the sciences into a basis for the evaluation of all experience. He maintained that the meaning of ideas is found only in terms of their possible consequences. If consequences are lacking, ideas are meaningless. James contended that this is the method used by scientists to define their terms and to test their hypotheses, which, if meaningful, entail predictions. The hypotheses can be considered true if the predicted events take place. On the other hand, most metaphysical theories are meaningless, because they entail no testable predictions. Meaningful theories, James argued, are instruments for dealing with problems that arise in experience. Dewey emphasized the practical, striving to show how philosophical ideas can work in everyday life. His sense f logic and philosophy was ever-changing, adaptive to need and circumstance.The process of thinking, in his philosophy, is a means of planning action, of removing the obstacles between what is given and what is wanted. Truth is an idea that has worked in practical experience. Dewey followed the American philosopher and psychologist William James as a leader of the pragmatic movement in philosophy; Dews own philosophy, called either instrumentalist or experimentalism, stems from the pragmatism of James. The following are its implications. Logic seeks to provide sports individuals with a sound and intelligent ethos of thinking in Physical Education and sports teaching.It tends to look at the steps that are used between thinking and puts ideas into orderly structured sequence that lead to the accurate thinking among the physical education and sports teacher and learners. Logic promotes development, clarification of beliefs and values in physical education and sports thus serving as a foundation for ones behavior to deal with fellow sports individuals. It is a process of critical examination, reasoning and speculation undertaken in any physical education and sports practice done to arrive at Ruth and reality by sports individuals. It provides direction for the physical education teachers and individuals programmer to be done in an orderly structured sequence. Logic as branch of philosophy makes the society to be aware that physical education and sports contributes its values to individuals living in it, thus developing ideas and relating them. Pragmatism says the following on the society. According to a pragmatic perspective, science is not a free-standing system for its own sake; rather, science serves humanity. There should be consequences that flow from research and inquiry that somehow or other dead to resolution of problems that we care about.This suggests a loose priority for problem-directed research over curiosity-driven research. And a pragmatic orientation implies that the researcher should design his/her research activities in an intelligent portfolio around a significant set of pressing human problems. A second implication of pragmatism in research comes down to expectations about methodology and epistemology. A pragmatic conception of research defines the epistemic values of research results practically. A theory or set of measurements should be good enough for the needs of the problem, rather than aspiring to an abstract notion of perfect precision.The standards of precision and vertically are set by the needs of the problem to be solved, rather than existing as free- standing requirements of ever-greater precision. (Sometimes, of course, greater precision is of great practical importance. ) But there is a little bit of a paradox underlying these comments. We dont generally know what kind of theoretical advance will be needed or constructive in application to a particular problem. Solving problems requires valid understandings of the semantics that give rise to these problems; but discovery of underlying mechanisms may proceed best from apparently unrelated theoretical research.So this seems to imply that the research community as a whole will be most pragmatically successful, if there is some division of labor within the community between curiosity-driven researchers and problem-solver researchers. (This seems to correspond roughly to the distinction between pure research and applied research. ) According to Sesames philosophy Great Men and Their Environment views ones society as not only a context in which great individuals emerge, but even as playing a selective role in allowing their greatness to develop.In turn, that social environment is affected by them. Whether or not an individual will be able to have an impact is, to some extent, determined by society. Thus socially significant individuals and their communities have a dynamic, correlative relations hip. In conclusion, Pragmatists regard all theories and institutions as tentative hypotheses and solutions. For this reason they believed that efforts to improve society, through such means as education or politics, must be geared toward problem loving and must be ongoing.Through their emphasis on connecting theory to practice, pragmatist thinkers attempted to transform all areas of philosophy, from metaphysics to ethics and political philosophy. The ideas of the pragmatists were considered revolutionary when they first appeared. To some critics, pragmatisms refusal to affirm any absolutes carried negative implications for society. For example, pragmatists do not believe that a single absolute idea of goodness or justice exists, but rather that these concepts are changeable and depend on the context in which they are being discussed.