Pragmaticism is a term introduced by Charles S. Peirce to distinguish his own version of pragmatism from other versions.
In 1905, Peirce noted that “the word (pragmatism) began to appear even in literary magazines, where it was abused in the ruthless way one would expect when words fall between literary teeth” (CP 5.414).
Finding that his child – pragmatism – was so overexposed, he felt the need to kiss him goodbye and release him to fly into a higher orbit.
To suggest the original definition, he declared “the birth of the word ‘pragmaticism’, which is ugly enough to protect against the abduction of foreign children“. In accepting this term, Peirce followed a rule set out by himself in the ethics of terminology. There he argues that “just as in chemistry, it would be appropriate to establish the meanings of certain prefixes and suffixes. For example, we can agree that the prefix prope- marks a broad and rather an endless stretching of the meaning of the term to which it is attached, the name of a doctrine would naturally end in -ism, while -icism should indicate a more strictly defined position than that doctrine … “(CP 5.413).
Thus, when Peirce argues that pragmatism, in one of its narrower and more limited meanings, is a form of positivism in a broad and free interpretation.
