# Pragmatism — Tradition Pragmatism is the distinctively American tradition founded by [[Charles Sanders Peirce]] and [[William James]] and developed by [[John Dewey]]: the meaning and truth of ideas lie in their practical consequences, knowledge has no fixed foundations, and inquiry is fallible and experimental. [[Richard Rorty]]'s late-20th-century **neopragmatism** fused it with [[Continental Philosophy]]. ## Why it matters on the right Pragmatism is a **two-edged** presence in right-wing discourse. [[John Dewey]] is a standing villain for traditionalist education critics, who blame progressive, child-centered pedagogy for declining standards and cultural drift — making him a recurring name in school-curriculum fights. [[Richard Rorty]]'s anti-foundationalism ("truth is what your peers let you get away with") is Exhibit A in the right's narrative that the academic left abandoned objective truth — a charge usually aimed at [[Postmodernism]] but extended to Rorty. Yet the tradition's anti-ideological, results-first temper also has affinities with a managerial, non-doctrinaire conservatism. ## Relationship Pragmatism is a key reference in the [[Epistemology]] branch's truth-and-relativism debates. See the [[Philosophy in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] MOC.