Editing Philosophical methodology (section)

=== Pragmatic method ===
The [[Pragmatism|pragmatic]] method assesses the truth or falsity of theories by looking at the consequences of accepting them.<ref name="IEPPragmatism">{{cite web |last1=McDermid |first1=Douglas |title=Pragmatism |url=https://iep.utm.edu/pragmati/ |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=22 February 2022}}</ref> In this sense, "[t]he test of truth is utility: it's true if it works".<ref name="Bawden">{{cite journal |last1=Bawden |first1=H. Heath |title=What is Pragmatism? |journal=The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods |date=1904 |volume=1 |issue=16 |pages=421–427 |doi=10.2307/2011902 |jstor=2011902 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2011902 |issn=0160-9335}}</ref> Pragmatists approach intractable philosophical disputes in a down-to-earth fashion by asking about the concrete consequences associated, for example, with whether an abstract [[metaphysical]] theory is true or false. This is also intended to clarify the underlying issues by spelling out what would follow from them.<ref name="StanfordPragmatism"/> Another goal of this approach is to expose pseudo-problems, which involve a merely verbal disagreement without any genuine difference on the level of the consequences between the competing standpoints.<ref name="IEPPragmatism"/><ref name="StanfordPragmatism">{{cite web |last1=Legg |first1=Catherine |last2=Hookway |first2=Christopher |title=Pragmatism |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=22 February 2022 |date=2021}}</ref>

Succinct summaries of the pragmatic method base it on the [[pragmatic maxim]], of which various versions exist. An important version is due to [[Charles Sanders Peirce]]: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object."<ref name="StanfordPragmatism"/> Another formulation is due to [[William James]]: "To develop perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what effects of a conceivable practical kind the object may involve – what sensations we are to expect from it and what reactions we must prepare".<ref>{{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |title=Collected essays and reviews |date=1920 |publisher=New York Longmans, Green and Co. |page=411 |url=https://archive.org/details/collectedessays00jamegoog/page/410/mode/2up}}</ref> Various criticisms to the pragmatic method have been raised. For example, it is commonly rejected that the terms "true" and "useful" mean the same thing. A closely related problem is that believing in a certain theory may be useful to one person and useless to another, which would mean the same theory is both true and false.<ref>{{cite web |title=Evaluation of pragmatism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/pragmatism-philosophy/Evaluation-of-pragmatism |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=6 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>