pragmatiké historia

"Pragmatiké historia," or pragmatic history, is a concept that views historical writings as instructive and useful for readers, emphasizing action and experience over fixed principles. This approach, derived from the Greek word "pragma" meaning action or affair, contrasts with abstract or ultimate principles.

The term was notably used by the Greek historian Polybius and later discussed by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In philosophy, pragmatism, dominant in the early 20th-century United States, asserts that the merit of ideas, policies, and proposals is determined by their usefulness, workability, and practicality. It stresses that ideas derive their meaning from their consequences and their truth from verification, serving as instruments for action.1