Knowing What Works Best For Yourself

How does pragmatism help solve life problems?

Pragmatism is an empirically based philosophy that defines knowledge and truth in terms of practical consequences (chapter introduction). Pragmatism is all about what works best for you and what doesn't work best. For William James the function of philosophy shifted from revealing "the truth" to learning how to live in the world (15-3b). Pragmatism helps decide life problems by looking at the practical consequences of a belief. James also referred to pragmatism as a creed, a philosophical creed is a body of beliefs we can devote our lives to (15-3a). 

When deciding if I wanted to go to college, I looked back at how I did in high school. I was looking mostly on how my grades were and if I spent enough time studying outside of school. I saw that I had decent grades at the end of high school, but I also saw that I spent little time on studying outside of school. I was more focused on my friends and boys. But I thought to myself, "college is different than high school," and this was because I had heard that people who go to college are generally more mature than high-schoolers, and there are fewer distractions to learning in college. Now that I'm finishing my first year of college, I see that college is a little harder than high school was, and it requires more effort out of me and more of my time. Most importantly, however, I am already beginning to implement the philosophy of pragmatism in my own life because I have decided that if college works out for me in the upcoming year, I will continue to attend college until I graduate. If, on the other hand, my performance does not improve but instead gets even worse, I am going to do what is best for me and find a trade school that interests me. I think that if someone isn't really good at school, then the best option for that person would not be to go to a 4-year university. I have applied this same idea to religion, in the sense that if someone has tried a religion and found no improvements in their lives after joining that religion, then that particular religion (or religion in general) was likely not what worked best for that person.  

By looking at the practical consequences I can see if college is the best option for me. This also applies to all of our life problems, like deciding to work full-time vs. going to college full-time, or even deciding if you should get a divorce. It is a never ending cycle of looking at all the practical consequences of all of your beliefs, and seeing what works best. James attempted to present a philosophy that could provide values and ideas worth striving for, and that could satisfy our need to believe without appealing to metaphysical abstractions like other philosophers did (15-3). Pragmatism is a method for solving those problems that interfere with feeling "at home" in the universe (15-3a). 

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