Pragmatists

In the philosophy-of-knowledge framing from The Notetaking Cold War, pragmatists treat categories not as discoveries of a fixed essence but as tools judged by their usefulness — so the “right” note system is whichever one works, not whichever mirrors the true structure of the world. The piece groups William James, Wittgenstein, and Rorty under this label and contrasts them with the Essentialists.

Where this appears

• The Notetaking Cold War — the pragmatist/essentialist split is offered as the deep frame behind the Tiago Forte vs. Conor White-Sullivan debate over how to organize notes, mapping note systems onto rival theories of truth.