Pragmatic is the study of how context affects meaning in human communication. In the broadest sense, pragmatics considers the social, cultural and situational factors that go beyond a literal meaning in speech or writing. The field has many branches, including computational and formal pragmatics; theoretical and applied; game-theoretical and experimental pragmatics; clinical and neuropragmatics; intercultural, interlinguistic and cross-cultural pragmatics. It also includes the philosophical pragmatism that James developed in the 19th century, which is often considered one of the first full-fledged epistemologies to incorporate a philosophy of pragmatics into its framework.
A person who takes a practical approach to life is said to be pragmatic. Pragmatic people focus on what works rather than on abstract notions. For example, a four-year-old who wants a unicorn for his or her birthday isn’t pragmatic about it. The word pragmatic has also been used to describe a kind of ruthless, unscrupulous practicality. In business and politics, it’s common for people to refer to someone who “cuts ethical corners” as being pragmatic.
In philosophical terms, pragmatism is an ancient movement that combines scientific loyalty to facts with a reverence for faith and human values. It is a philosophy that seeks to bring together the two camps that have traditionally separated science and religion, as well as the camps that see truth as either objective or subjective. It is also a philosophy that can coexist with and complement other philosophical views, including utilitarianism and logical positivism.
The main idea of pragmatics is that the meaning of a statement depends on its circumstances. This is often referred to as the pragmatic maxim, and it is considered a cornerstone of pragmatism. It is an important concept for scientists, as it explains why the same thing can have different meanings in different contexts.
It is also the principle behind a lot of the work done in computational pragmatics, which is a branch of artificial intelligence and computer science. It’s the reason that a computer program can recognize when two objects are the same or not, for example. The more contextual information a computer can process, the better it will be at processing natural language and understanding what people really mean when they say things.
There are many different philosophies that can be described as pragmatic, but the philosophy of pragmatism is one of the most prominent and influential. It is often combined with other philosophical movements, such as empiricism, fallibilism and verificationism. It is also commonly associated with Quinean naturalism, although this is not a strict requirement. The goal of pragmatism is to find an alternative to the traditional epistemologies, which are often too absolutist and rigid for real-world application. In the end, pragmatism is a philosophy that allows us to take knowledge as it comes. Ultimately, it is the way that we find truth and value. It is what makes pragmatism unique among epistemologies. It is also why it has been able to withstand attacks from various skeptical viewpoints.
