Pragmatic is a philosophy that stresses the importance of practical solutions and consequences. It is often contrasted with idealism, which focuses on ideals and possibilities. People who are pragmatic focus on the results and the consequences of their actions, whereas those who are more idealism-oriented may struggle to compromise or stick to their principles no matter what the outcome.
Pragmatism was founded by philosophers Charles Peirce and John Dewey in the nineteenth century. The original pragmatists believed that the goal of philosophical inquiry is to clarify what reality is, rather than what it could or should be. As such, pragmatism is an anti-metaphysical philosophy that rejects a priori metaphysics and the illusory certainty-seeking strategies of Cartesian epistemology.
Throughout the ages, pragmatism has influenced many different fields of study, including psychology, education, philosophy, sociology, and business. Today, it continues to inspire students as it offers an innovative approach to learning and teaching. Pragmatics is an important part of the field of communication studies and is an ideal topic for high school or college students to explore.
It is also possible to use pragmatism in an elementary classroom to teach students how to communicate effectively in various social situations. For example, teachers can incorporate activities such as “Luck of the Draw (Pragmatics)” to teach students how to say hello appropriately in different circumstances. Students can role-play with friends to practice the appropriateness of their greetings in different situations. The same activity can be used to practice requesting information, making a complaint, giving advice, and making an invitation.
The field of experimental pragmatics emerged in the 1970s when psycholinguists and other psychologists began to explore how people understand utterances. This was a departure from the traditional emphasis in psycholinguistics on the lexical, syntactic, and semantic processing of sentence meaning. Some linguists and psychologists were skeptical about the feasibility of scientifically examining pragmatic language production and interpretation. One of the most popular refrains was that “pragmatics is the wastebasket of linguistics.”
However, the development of the pragmatics movement within cognitive science has allowed for more scientific exploration and validation of pragmatic language production and comprehension. Experimental pragmatics has continued to thrive in the past 40 years as it has gained legitimacy and acceptance in a variety of disciplines. It is now considered an essential branch of research in linguistics and psychology. There is still much work to be done, but the future looks bright for this innovative and exciting interdisciplinary field.
