ABSTRACT
Pragmatism began as a theory of meaning. It is often dated from the publication in 1878 of Peirce's article ‘How to make our ideas clear', in which the meaning of an idea is identified with its ‘practical bearings', that is to say the difference its being true would make in terms of experiencable consequences in the future. It is perhaps most familiar as a theory of truth, especially in the form given to it by William James for whom the true is what it is good, expedient or satisfactory to believe.
