ABSTRACT
The concept of pragmatism, in a truly pragmatic fashion, lends itself to multiple interpretations. Prakash et al. have used agent-based modelling to demonstrate that when given a choice between perceiving the literal truth or a beneficial fiction, the agents that follow the latter course win out and pass on their characteristics to subsequent generations. Strategic pragmatism is significant because of its emphasis on systematic and rigorous analysis of the strategic situation so as to derive a grand strategy. This is the key difference between strategic pragmatism and pragmatism: strategic pragmatism’s emphasis is on grand strategy and its derivation through rigorous analysis (with systems and long-term thinking) and pragmatically implementing the grand strategy with adjustments according to reality. Pragmatism is a skill, rather than a universal attribute or ‘thing to do’. The mere fact of establishing it as a goal can serve to weaken one’s ability to pursue it, as an idealised vision of pragmatism itself becomes merely another distracting ideology.
