Unsuccessful title adopted by Peirce for pragmatism, in the hope of distinguishing his version from the views of James and other contemporaries. Peirce was concerned that James was vulgarizing his ideas, and wanted to establish that he, and not James, was propounding the real core of pragmatism. One formulation is the maxim he expressed as follows: ‘consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object’ (first paragraph of ‘Issues of Pragmaticism’, 1905).