Philosophical Inquiries: An Introduction to Problems of Philosophy

Pragmatism and Practical Rationality

98 functionalistic Pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical position that puts practice at center stage and sees efficacy in practical activities as the prime goals of human endeavor. But there are two markedly different ways of working out this sort of a program. One way of implementing the leading idea of pragmatism is to see theory and theorizing as being incidental and secondary in importance —a “merely intellectual” concern that has a less significant role in human affairs than do matters of action and praxis. This version of the position might be characterized as practicalism. However, a quite different version of pragmatism sees theory as subordinate to praxis not in importance but rather in fundamentality . This approach does not relegate theory to a secondary status in point of interest or importance. On the contrary, it regards theory as something crucial and critically important but then takes success in matters of practical implementation as the adequacy criterion of successful theorizing. This criteriological version of the theory might be designated as functionalism. 8 Pragmatism and Practical rationality rescher phil inq text.indd 98 3/1/10 3:15 PM PraGMatIsM anD PractIcal ratIonalItY 99 Such a functionalistic version of pragmatism regards effective praxis as the arbiter of appropriate theorizing. It takes considerations of purposive effectiveness to provide the standard for the adequacy of the operative principles of human endeavor—alike in theoretical and practical matters. Effective implementation is its pervasive standard of adequacy. Pragmatism’s historic concern has always been not with the descriptive characteristics of things but with their normative appropriateness . And here its logical starting point is the uncontroversial idea that the natural and sensible standard of approval for something that is in any procedural—anything that has an aspect that is methodological , procedural, or instrumental—lies in the question of its successful application. Any process or procedure that has a teleology —that is, an instrumentality for the realization of certain purposes —will automatically be subject to an evaluation standard that looks to its efficacy. For whenever something is in any way purposively oriented to the realization of certain ends, the natural question for its evaluation in this regard is that of its serviceability in effective end realization. After all, man is a purposive animal. Virtually everything that we do has a purpose to it. Even play, idleness, and tomfoolery have a purpose—to divert, to provide rest and recreation, to kill time. And certainly our larger projects in the realm of human endeavor are purposive: Inquiry—to resolve doubt and to guide action. Ethics—to encourage modes of conduct in human interactions that canalize them into a generally satisfactory and beneficial form. Law—to establish and enforce rules of conduct. Education—to acculturate the younger generation so as to enhance the prospect that young people will find their way to personally satisfying and communally beneficial lifestyles. Art—to create objects or object types, exposure to which engenders personally rewarding and enlightening experiences. On this basis, a functionalistic pragmatism can encompass the entire range of human concern. It is not (and should not be) a mainly rescher phil inq text.indd 99 3/1/10 3:15 PM 100 PraGMatIsM anD PractIcal ratIonalItY materialistic doctrine concerned only with crass payoffs. Rather, it is a multipurpose resource. For a pragmatic approach to validation can of course be implemented in any purposive setting. Given any aim or objective whatever, we can always provide a correlative validation in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency of its realization. But a really thorough pragmatism must dig yet more deeply. It cannot simply take purposes as given—as gift horses into whose mouths we must not look. For purpose adoption too has to be viewed in a pragmatic perspective as an act or activity of sorts that itself stands in need of legitimation. Accordingly, a sensible pragmatism also requires an axiology of purposes, a normative methodology for assessing the appropriateness of the purposes we espouse for creatures situated as we are in the world’s scheme of things. We humans live subject to a manifold of processes: physical, chemical, biological, social, economic, and so on. Each processual realm imposes various purposes upon us, subjecting us to needs, requirements, and desiderata of various sorts. The meeting of these purposes involves us in a wide variety of projects, each with its own manifold of purpose-accommodating processes. We are thus committed to such projects as the pursuit...