Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics and the philosophy of language, that examines the context that influences meaning. The study of pragmatics focuses on how the meaning of an utterance changes in different situations, and how the speaker’s intentions and beliefs influence the interpretation of an utterance. Linguists who specialize in pragmatics are called pragmaticians. The field of pragmatics is influenced by philosophy of language and the philosophical tradition known as pragmatism.
A number of liberatory philosophies such as feminism, ecology and Native American philosophy also look to pragmatism as their philosophical home. These pragmatists seek answers to questions that range from the limits of science (often framed in terms of whether science degrades meaning into mere physical phenomena) to the nature and value of knowledge itself.
Classical pragmatists, like Dewey and James, sought to address such issues through a theory of inquiry. This theory of inquiry argued that we can know things only by finding out how they work in practice. As such, the most important method for obtaining truth is experimentation.
However, this method carries the risk of equivocation and circularity, making it difficult to determine how a thing really works in practice. For this reason, a pragmatist would argue that we must rely on a more reliable method of inquiry, which is why he or she would suggest that we adopt a pragmatist epistemology that focuses on the functional effectiveness of an argument or claim.
For pragmatists, the truth of a claim can only be determined in the context of an application, which must be sufficiently compelling to be worth engaging with. This is a radical epistemology that, in contrast to classical realism and naturalism, does not rely on the existence of a natural world teeming with objective, unquestionable facts. It is this epistemology that forms the basis of pragmatist theory of language, and a pragmatist metaethics.
In recent decades, neopragmatists have developed new ways of thinking about the nature of values and truth that take inspiration from the methods of the classical pragmatists. This has led to a pragmatist approach to ethics that emphasizes the role of value in the decision-making process. It has also inspired a neopragmatist approach to metaphilosophy, arguing that a true account of truth must incorporate the practical contexts in which claims are made.
A pragmatic person is able to remain calm and think logically when faced with a crisis, rather than being swayed by fear or heightened emotions. Those who are dogmatic tend to cling to their own beliefs, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, because they believe that their own belief is the only one that is correct.
Many scholars have attributed the birth of public administration to the work of the classical pragmatists, such as Dewey and James. The ideas of these philosophers have shaped research in the field by focusing on problems-oriented strategies and using theory to craft solutions. For example, the pragmatist concept of participation has been used to guide policies in many different government agencies and organizations.
