The most influential philosophy in America in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Viewed against the widely diversified intellectual currents that have characterized American life, pragmatism stands out as an energetically evolved philosophical movement. As a movement it is best understood as, in part, a critical rejection of much of traditional academic philosophy and, in part, a regard to establish certain positive aims. It is in these respects, rather than because of any one idea or exclusive doctrine, that pragmatism has been the most distinctive and the major contribution of America to the world of philosophy. The historical occasion of the birth of pragmatism is complicated by the fact that it was to some extent the product of co-operative deliberation and mutual influences within the 'Metaphysical Club', founded by Peirce, James and others in the 1870s in Cambridge. Peirce and James often gave very different accounts of what they understood by 'pragmatism'. Nevertheless, despite different influences of Peirce, James, and John Dewey, pragmatism is to be viewed as a group of associated theoretical ideas and attitudes developed over a period of time and exhibiting rather significant shifts in direction and formulation.