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What is Pragmatics?

Pragmatics is the study of speakers’ intentions and strategies in using language. It is a natural part of pragmatic philosophy and aims to understand the ways in which we determine meaning in a conversational context. The domain of pragmatism, however, goes beyond language and includes such issues as how people learn to understand and communicate in a variety of other areas of human activity.

Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that originated in the United States around 1870, and today presents a growing third alternative to both analytic and Continental philosophies worldwide. Its key ideas were developed by Charles Sanders Peirce and his Harvard colleague William James, who gave the movement its name. Later, Josiah Royce became an important interlocutor with James and also promoted pragmatism. Although he formally embraced absolute idealism, his writings show that he shared many of the central ideas of pragmatism and was acknowledged as a pragmatist by Peirce himself.

Peirce’s pragmatism is a philosophy of inquiry and knowledge. He defines a pragmatic theory of truth and argues that beliefs become true or false in the course of interaction with the world through the processes of inquiry and action. For Peirce, nothing that is merely true or false in isolation has any significance. In fact, he argues that it is only through the struggle of intelligent organisms to survive and meet the challenges of their environment that anything becomes true at all.

The pragmatist theory of truth is based on the notion that a statement can be considered to be true or false depending on how helpful it proves to inquirers and others in the process of achieving their goals. This concept is a fundamental element of the theory of inquiry and knowledge, and it is one that can be found in various other forms of philosophy, including empiricism, fallibilism, verificationism, a Quinean naturalist metaphilosophy, and even some modal logics.

It is common to hear of a pragmatic approach being taken in politics, business or medicine. For example, a pragmatic approach might be to settle a lawsuit rather than trying to win an impossible case in court. A pragmatic view is often more useful than an idealistic or dogmatic view.

In the history of pragmatism, philosophers have debated the porous nature of the boundary between Semantics and Pragmatics. Some, such as Saul Kripke (1979), have argued for a clear distinction between the semantic meaning of descriptions (which would invariably coincide with Donnellan’s attributional use) and the speaker’s meaning, which may include or exclude the referent of the description or not, in accordance with Gricean principles and maxims. Others have disputed the need for such a distinction and argue that any distinction is arbitrary and artificial.

More recently, Robert Brandom has developed a program of research in pragmatic philosophy that aims to integrate analytic and Sellarsian ideas. His work on the relationship between saying and doing has inspired a number of researchers to develop fruitful new approaches that combine analytic and pragmatist principles.