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Pragmatism vs Existentialism - What's the difference?

pragmatism | existentialism |

As nouns the difference between pragmatism and existentialism

is that pragmatism is the pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals while existentialism is a twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices.

pragmatism

Noun

  • The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
  • (politics) The theory that political problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones.
  • (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.
  • * 1902 , William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience , Folio Society 2008, p. 378:
  • Our conception of these practical consequences is for us the whole of our conception of the object [...] This is the principle of Peirce, the principle of pragmatism .

    Antonyms

    * idealism * contemplation

    existentialism

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (philosophy, not countable) A twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices.
  • The heyday of existentialism occurred in the mid-twentieth century.
  • (philosophy, countable) The philosophical views of a particular thinker associated with the existentialist movement.
  • Sartre's existentialism''' is atheistic, but the '''existentialism of Marcel is distinctly Christian.
  • * 1965 , Mikel Dufrenne, "Existentialism and Existentialisms," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , vol 26 no 1 (Sep), p. 51.
  • Instead of Existentialism', we should speak of ' Existentialisms .

    Antonyms

    * noumenalism