The Usefulness of Philosophy
A Pragmatist Perspective on Its Social Impact
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29105/aitias6.6-138Keywords:
public philosophy, pragmatism, social impact, democracy, science and valuesAbstract
In recent years, philosophy has increasingly been questioned regarding its social usefulness and its alleged academic isolation. In response to diagnoses that portray the discipline as self-referential and disconnected from public concerns, this article proposes revisiting philosophy’s social impact from a pragmatist perspective. Drawing on a critical examination of contemporary debates on public philosophy and applied philosophy, it argues that the usefulness of philosophy cannot be assessed through a single criterion. The article develops a three-level model of social impact—individual and communal, institutional and epistemic, and cultural and mythological—grounded in the work of John Dewey, Philip Kitcher, and Mary Midgley. This framework allows for a more nuanced understanding of how philosophy can contribute to democratic life, the governance of knowledge, and moral clarification, without reducing its value to immediate technical productivity.
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