pragmatism

  1. Noun.  The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
  2. Noun.  (politics) The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones.
  3. Noun.  (philosophy) The idea that beliefs are identified with the actions of a believer, and the truth of beliefs with success of those actions in securing a believer's goals; the doctrine that ideas must be looked at in terms of their practical effects and consequences.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.