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What is Pragmatic Philosophy?

Pragmatic is a philosophy that emphasizes practicality, realism and logical thinking. It deals with the ways people approach problems and their outcomes, taking real world considerations into account. It is often applied in everyday situations, such as Alice deciding to pursue her higher education after researching different educational programs, considering the financial implications, managing her time effectively and considering her work-life balance. Being pragmatic means she is making a decision that aligns with her circumstances and maximizes positive results.

Pragmatists are often concerned with understanding how we use language. This field of study is called Pragmatics, and differs from semantics and syntax (or phonology). The main difference between Pragmatics and Semantics is that Pragmatics looks at how language is used in context, whereas semantics deals with the actual objects that words might or might not refer to.

A key part of pragmatism is the theory that it is not possible to determine meaning by studying a sign or an utterance in isolation. Instead, it is necessary to examine the sign in context, or more specifically how the utterance is interpreted by others. This concept is known as the Cooperative Principle, and was first formulated by Paul Grice in 1970. He also wrote a set of rules that are commonly known as the Gricean Maxims. These rules are essentially the ‘rules of thumb’ for understanding how our language works in conversation.

While the theories that are associated with pragmatism vary slightly, there is consensus that ‘close-to-non-controversial’ pragmatic phenomena must be taken into account when analyzing an utterance or sign. These phenomena include resolving ambiguity and vagueness, reference of proper names, indexicals and demonstratives, as well as anaphors. In addition, the theory must take into account contextual features, such as the presence of certain emotions and attitudes that may influence the way an utterance is understood.

In addition, a pragmatist must deal with the way in which beliefs are acquired and justified. This is the subject of many debates within the field, with some pragmatists arguing that beliefs are only true if they are helpful in our struggle to understand the world around us. Others argue that beliefs are only ‘true’ if they reflect reality.

There are two main schools of thought in pragmatism: those who believe that ‘pragmatics’ should be separated from semantics and those who believe that it should be treated as a fundamental aspect of the study of language. This debate is ongoing, with both sides having valid points and arguments. In practice, contemporary philosophers tend to fall into one of these camps, with those who reject the notion that semantics should be autonomous from pragmatics being known as ‘Literalists’, and those who take a Relevance Theory approach, accepting some of the fundamental tenets of Pragmatics while perhaps disagreeing with many of its specifics, being known as ‘Contextualists’. A third group, however, are those who do not subscribe to either of these positions and simply believe that the study of linguistic pragmatics should be integrated into the study of semantics as part of a general philosophy of language.