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Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:16 pm
Post subject: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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Hi,
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
Cheers,
Michael
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P Darby
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:38 pm
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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<dayzman@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129648569.464654.232490@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Hi,
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
|
Maybe one means the same as 'practicable', and the other doesn't ??? |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:43 pm
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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<dayzman@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129648569.464654.232490@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
|
This implication in dictionaries seems to reflect usage,
viz. the two words are often used as synonymous. But
some differences persist:
-- The Pragmatic Sanction in European history -- never
called Practical.
-- Philosophy: Kant called one of his books Practical
(not Pragmatic) Reason, but the American school approx.
1900 decided to call itself Pragmatists, not Practicalists.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
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Bob Cunningham
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:50 pm
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:43:43 -0400, "Don Phillipson"
<d.phillipson@ttrryytteell.com> said:
| Quote: | dayzman@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129648569.464654.232490@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
This implication in dictionaries seems to reflect usage,
viz. the two words are often used as synonymous. But
some differences persist:
-- The Pragmatic Sanction in European history -- never
called Practical.
-- Philosophy: Kant called one of his books Practical
(not Pragmatic) Reason, but the American school approx.
1900 decided to call itself Pragmatists, not Practicalists.
|
As I reed what you've said, you've given examples of usage
preferences, not of differences in connotation. Kant may
have thought that "practical reason" and "pragmatic reason"
meant exactly the same thing, while choosing to use
"pragmatic" because he somehow liked it better.
But did Kant write in English? If Kant named his book in
German, whether it's called in English _Practical Reason_ or
_Pragmatic Reason_ seems to reflect a translator's
preference, not Kant's.
In _The New Cassell's German Dictionary_, English
"practical" and "pragmatic" are both shown as translatable
to German "praktisch", among other things. |
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Mark P
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:04 am
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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dayzman@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | Hi,
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
Cheers,
Michael
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Another point of view is that prgamatic is synonymous with one meaning
of practical and so, when used in that context, is more emphatic. |
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Odysseus
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:09 pm
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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dayzman@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: |
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
|
Describing "approach" I don't perceive any difference between them.
But my sense is that "pragmatic" is somewhat narrower in scope,
applying most properly to a methodology, philosophy, or general
attitude -- an "approach" in other words -- while "practical" would
be a better choice concerning actual applications or results, as when
modifying e.g. "implementation", "achievement", or "skill".
--
Odysseus |
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Weatherlawyer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:04 pm
Post subject: Re: "pragmatic" vs "practical" |
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Odysseus wrote:
| Quote: | dayzman@hotmail.com wrote:
What is the difference in meaning between "pragmatic" and "practical"?
For example, "a pragmatic approach" vs "a practical approach". A lot of
dictionaries seem to imply "pragmatic" and "practical" are synonyms.
Describing "approach" I don't perceive any difference between them.
But my sense is that "pragmatic" is somewhat narrower in scope,
applying most properly to a methodology, philosophy, or general
attitude -- an "approach" in other words -- while "practical" would
be a better choice concerning actual applications or results, as when
modifying e.g. "implementation", "achievement", or "skill".
Pragmatism is a psychological approach to a problem. Such as: |
By default Democracy is a waste of breath, whoever you vote for a
politician will get in. A pragmatist would just get on with things.
Whereas a practical approach connotes an engineering point of view such
as:
A good practical approach to get rid of a bad politician would be to
blow all the bastards up. This makes Guy Fawkes one of the best
politicians we never had.
So I suppose we just celebrate his engineering skills pragmatically? |
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