Pragmatism redefined thought as an active tool for solving problems rather than passive contemplation.

Evidence

It is not that Peirce or Holmes or Nietzsche was a “Romantic” in a precise sense, if there is such a sense. It is that they wished to shift attention from a passive, contemplative relation between an observing subject and an objective reality, whether natural or social, to an active, creative relation between striving human beings and the problems that beset them and that they seek to overcome. For these thinkers, thought was an exertion of will instrumental to some human desire (and we see here the link between pragmatism and utilitarianism). Social institutions-whether science, law, or religion-were the product of shifting human desires rather than of a reality external to those desires. Human beings had not only eyes but hands as well. — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 25

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concise statement of the pragmatist reorientation from spectator to agent — the eye/hand contrast does real explanatory work.
• XREF: Connects to Dewey’s later ‘problem-solving’ theory of inquiry and to legal realism’s instrumentalism. — connects to: These elements in turn imply an outlook that is progressive (in the sense of forward-looking), secular, and experimental, and that is commonsensical without making a fetish of common sense-for common sense is a repository of prejudice and ignorance as well as a fount of wisdom. R.W. Sleeper has helpfully summarized the pragmatic outlook in describing Dewey’s philosophy as ‘a philosophy rooted in common sense and dedicated to the transformation of culture, to the resolution of the conflicts that divide us.’ Also apt is Cornel West’s description of the ‘common denominator’ of pragmatism as ‘a future-oriented instrumentalism that tries to deploy thought as a weapon to enable more effective action.’; Pragmatism rejects Enlightenment dualisms as props of conservatism — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 17; Absence of feudal tradition explains American pragmatic work ethos (+1 more)