Names the American philosophical school of William James and John Dewey. Hu Shi (
胡适), who studied under Dewey at Columbia, brought
实用主义 to China in the 1910s-20s, and it deeply influenced May Fourth-era intellectual debates. In everyday Chinese the word now mostly means 'a practical, results-first attitude' — often with a faint dismissive edge ('he doesn't care about ideals, only what works').
