Pragmatism and the Realistic

Abstract

It is often claimed that Ramsey was a pragmatist, or took a pragmatic turn in his later work. While it is evident that Ramsey admired Peirce and was significantly influenced by some of his work, it is less obvious that Ramsey should be described as a pragmatist, especially as, if one of the theses of this book is correct, Ramsey’s realistic conviction can be traced to his earliest work, which was produced at a time which preceded his reading of Peirce. At any rate, I will here be concerned ultimately with trying to understand both what someone might mean by claiming that Ramsey was a pragmatist and whether that claim is true. Before doing that, however, I will discuss some of Ramsey’s work in which explicit reference is made to Peirce, both as a contribution to this book’s exegetical task and in attempting an answer to the question at hand.