¶ … pragmatism and analytic philosophy uniquely American movements? What elements of American culture (way of life) connect to why those two movements evolved in the U.S. What ideas make them different from the way Europeans of the same period were thinking? Pragmatism could be called a kind of anti-philosophy. It stresses 'what works' rather than attempts to provide an overarching theory about the nature of the universe. William James, the founder of American pragmatism called ideas 'road maps,' rather than tools that were valuable in and of themselves. Abstract philosophy could not improve human existence. Pragmatists believed that philosophical ideas were valuable based upon the demonstrated benefit that they have to individuals and society, not as metaphysical abstractions.

The concept of pragmatism was well-suited to the American idea that class was an irrational idea, and that hard work should demonstrate...

Proof was in the 'pudding' or the execution, not in the conceptual beauty, symmetry, and coherence of a philosophy, or in a philosophy's relationship with concepts of the philosophers of the past. The lack of emphasis on religion and eternity in pragmatism was also well-suited to American secularism. The definition of an object existed in its utility, not in metaphysics. Pragmatists believed that objects did not have an innate existence apart from their use. (A book, for example, can be an instrument of knowledge, or a stepladder used to reach something off the top shelf).
For pragmatists like James and John Dewey, thinking was a problem-solving method, with a definable, concrete end in the here and now. However, pragmatism had a profoundly compassionate side, as manifested in the ideology of Dewey's educational reforms. Dewey stressed using children's innate gifts to guide the pedagogical process and believed…