How Applied Pragmatic Thought Relates to Religion, Atheism, and Philosophers
Applied pragmatic thought is a non-denominational method for increasing the intentionality of one’s beliefs and life, regardless of whether these beliefs are atheistic or religious in origin.
This framework is, however, strictly opposed to using prefabricated “philosophical” belief sets as a crutch.
While you read this guide, you will feel a natural urge to avoid having to think. By default, whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to prefer being told what to believe or what arguments we should use to defend what we wish were true about the world. Nobody is exempt from this urge.
Anyone with access to an internet connection, a library, or memories of an introductory philosophy class can access a wide range of philosophers from both the recent and distant past who developed pre-packaged belief sets complete with fully prepared defenses to counter arguments and challenges. Building core beliefs about the world based on the arguments of philosophers is like trying to get in shape using liposuction and plastic surgery. You may look polished after the procedure, but you will have built no foundation. Having earned nothing for yourself, you will ultimately revert to your old habits.
If turning to pre-packaged philosophies is akin to getting liposuction, leveraging the framework presented in this guide is like signing up for a gym membership. Rather than artificially applying beliefs to you, we will act as your personal trainers and spotters, helping you to build and strengthen your own beliefs without doing the heavy lifting for you.
Along with a lack of personal mental effort and commitment, reliance on prepackaged beliefs carries with it the hazard of obscure vocabulary, which can slot you into potentially constraining categories, alienate you from others, and obscure your ability to truly understand what you are talking about.
For example, when trying to understand what you believe about the world, you may tumble down a Wikipedia hole and land on something like Epicureanism. At first glance, you may see Epicureanism as restrained version of an objective function focused on “maximizing personal positive emotions” and begin identifying as an Epicurean without realizing you are saying you identify with a worldview rather than just an objective function (while Epicureanism has an objective function it is a lot more than that, it is a pre-packaged worldview complete with a set of base ideologies). These prepackaged zero-thought worldviews are the microwavable dinners of identity.
Worse still is the way one can use their prepackaged buzzwords, concepts, and fallacies to create a sense of false superiority over people with whom you are communicating, which can ultimately prevent others from understanding your arguments. Ironically, obscure vocabulary may prevent you from appreciating that others’ viewpoints may be more sound and valid than your own, despite their lack of fancy vocabulary.
Chances are you have, on several occasions, witnessed someone using fancy or obscure terminology to try to win or end an argument without actually thinking about the issue at hand. Chances are these people have not been very effective at changing your views. In our never-ending quest to avoid reflecting on our position in the world, there is no greater armor preventing communication than obscure terminology.
Finally, if you have reached this part of the book and are disappointed to find we won’t be talking about Pragmatism, the philosophical movement of the late 1800s popularized by William James and John Dewey (or any of its modern manifestations, such as neo-classical pragmatism or analytical pragmatism), then please accept our sincerest apologies. This book is using the word “pragmatic” in the vernacular, which runs contrary to what most would consider to be an obscure, pedantic philosophical movement. (No offense to the philosophical movement; we are genuinely great admirers of it. Still, objectively speaking, most people would consider a lesser-known philosophical school of thought to be excessively academic and stuffy, which is the antithesis of the definition of the word pragmatic).
Avoiding fancy vocabulary is not easy. Even as we wrote this guide, we found ourselves relying on philosophical terms as a crutch and had to meticulously remove them. Do not fall into this trap.