ABSTRACT
The most important philosophical influence on the development of Chicago sociology, and on Blumer's methodological ideas, was pragmatism. The traditional account of the origins of pragmatism is that some of its core ideas were developed by Peirce in the 1870s, in association with William James and other members of the 'Metaphysical club' at Harvard University. Peirce developed a very distinctive and complex philosophical viewpoint, drawing on many different philosophical traditions. The most influential of Peirce's ideas, the one that gave pragmatism its name, is the pragmatic maxim. The pragmatic maxim was interpreted in a rather different way by William James. He placed it in a philosophical context that was centred not on experimental science, but on the psychology and ethics of everyday human life. James's ideas shaped those of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead, particularly in portraying mind as a part of nature and beliefs as instruments for the achievement of human ends.
