Pragmatism

Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition
is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical
consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected. Pragmatism originated in the
United States during the latter quarter of the nineteenth century.

Pragmatic theories of truth developed from the earlier ideas of ancient philosophy, the Scholastics, and
Immanuel Kant. Pragmatic ideas about truth are often confused with the quite distinct notions of "logic
and inquiry", "judging what is true", and "truth predicates".

Pragmatist Philosophers

Charles Sanders Peirce (10 September 1839 – 19 April 1914) was an American philosopher, logician,
mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated
as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his
contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his
founding of pragmatism.

John Dewey (1859—1952) was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as
pragmatism, a view that rejected the dualistic epistemology and metaphysics of modern philosophy in
favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the
human organism to its environment. On this view, inquiry should not be understood as consisting of a
mind passively observing the world and drawing from this ideas that if true correspond to reality, but
rather as a process which initiates with a check or obstacle to successful human action, proceeds to
active manipulation of the environment to test hypotheses, and issues in a re-adaptation of organism to
environment that allows once again for human action to proceed. With this view as his starting point,
Dewey developed a broad body of work encompassing virtually all of the main areas of philosophical
concern in his day. He also wrote extensively on social issues in such popular publications as the New
Republic, thereby gaining a reputation as a leading social commentator of his time.

Instrumentalism

In the philosophy of science, the view that the value of scientific concepts and theories is determined
not by whether they are literally true or correspond to reality in some sense but by the extent to which
they help to make accurate empirical predictions or to resolve conceptual problems. Instrumentalism is
thus the view that scientific theories should be thought of primarily as tools for solving practical
problems rather than as meaningful descriptions of the natural world. Indeed, instrumentalists typically
call into question whether it even makes sense to think of theoretical terms as corresponding to external
reality. In that sense, instrumentalism is directly opposed to scientific realism, which is the view that the
point of scientific theories is not merely to generate reliable predictions but to describe the world
accurately.
a form of philosophical pragmatism as it applies to the philosophy of science. The term itself comes from
the American philosopher John Dewey’s name for his own more general brand of pragmatism, according
to which the value of any idea is determined by its usefulness in helping people to adapt to the world
around them.

Communism

political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with
public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills,
and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism—a higher
and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has
long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the
revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.

Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism and anarchism
(anarcho-communism), as well as the political ideologies grouped around both. All of these share the
analysis that the current order of society stems from its economic system, capitalism; that in this system
there are two major social classes; that conflict between these two classes is the root of all problems in
society; and that this situation will ultimately be resolved through a social revolution. The two classes are
the working class—who must work to survive and who make up the majority within society—and the
capitalist class—a minority who derives profit from employing the working class through private
ownership of the means of production. The revolution will put the working class in power and in turn
establish social ownership of the means of production, which according to this analysis is the primary
element in the transformation of society towards communism. Critics of communism can be roughly
divided into those concerning themselves with the practical aspects of 20th century communist states
and those concerning themselves with communist principles and theory.

Karl Marx

The Father of Communism, Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist, proposed this new
ideology in his Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Friedrich Engels in 1848. The manifesto
emphasized the importance of class struggle in every historical society, and the dangerous instability
capitalism created. Though it did outline some basic requirements for a communist society, the
manifesto was largely analytical of historical events that led to its necessity and suggested the system’s
ultimate goals, but did not concretely provide instructions for setting up a communist government.
Though Marx died well before a government tested his theories, his writings, in conjunction with a rising
disgruntled working class across Europe, did immediately influence revolutionary industrial workers
throughout Europe who created an international labor movement.

Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, communist, social
scientist, journalist and businessman. Engels developed what now is known as the Marxist theory
together with Karl Marx and in 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based
on personal observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored The Communist
Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. Later,
Engels supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited
the second and third volumes. Additionally, Engels organised Marx's notes on the Theories of Surplus
Value, which he later published as the "fourth volume" of Capital. In 1884 another main work of Engels
has been publsihed: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

Marxism Theory is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using
a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social
transformation. Marxism uses a methodology, now known as historical materialism, to analyze and
critique the development of capitalism and the role of class struggles in systemic economic change.

According to Marxist theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the
material interests of the oppressed proletariat—a class of wage labourers employed to produce goods
and services—and the bourgeoisie—the ruling class that owns the means of production and extract their
wealth through appropriation of the surplus product (profit) produced by the proletariat.

Communist Society

In Marxist thought, communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic
system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the
ultimate goal of the political ideology of Communism. A communist society is characterized by common
ownership of the means of production with free access to the articles of consumption and is classless
and stateless,[3] implying the end of the exploitation of labour.

Communism is a specific stage of socioeconomic development predicated upon a superabundance of

material wealth, which is postulated to arise from advances in production technology and corresponding
changes in the social relations of production. This would allow for distribution based on need and social
relations based on freely-associated individuals.

The term "communist society" should be distinguished from the Western concept of the "communist
state", the latter referring to a state ruled by a party which professes a variation of Marxism–Leninism.