the.com/pragmatism

means A way of evaluating ideas, beliefs, or actions by their practical consequences rather than by abstract principle or ideal theory.

from From Greek 'pragma' meaning 'deed' or 'thing done' (itself from 'prassein,' to do or act), via Latin 'pragmaticus.' The philosophical sense was sharpened in late 19th-century America — the term is strongly associated with Charles Sanders Peirce, who coined 'pragmatism' as a label for his method, and William James, who popularized it — building on the older everyday sense of a 'pragmatic' person as one concerned with practical matters over theory.