Action should always be informed by pragmatism – otherwise it is self-indulgent waste.
For individual pragmatism I stated:
In acting we select a tool and apply it. The tool has to be right for the job.
Experience may tell us a tool will work, or we may “test the fit” to the job.
In either case we must be open to rethinking our action in the light of outcomes.
The tool does not justify the action – it is only a tool!
For collective pragmatism the public legitimacy of tool selection may rest, at least partly, on the nature of the collective principal of action. For example right and left wing political parties may choose free market or state regulatory solutions respectively on idealogical rather than pragmatic grounds.
