pragmatism is an american school of philosophical thought led by William James and C.S. peircepeirce
C.S. Peirce
that focuses on the practical difference that philosophy makes. It orients itself toward whatever the user of philosophy wants to do. If they want to do science, for example, then pragmatism tells them to develop operational definitions.
Peirce's Maxim
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.
The entire intellectual purport of any symbol consists in the total of all general modes of rational conduct which, conditionally upon all the possible different circumstances and desires, would ensue upon the acceptance of the symbol.