Pragmatics and Semantics
Many contemporary pragmatics theories based on philosophy focus on semantics. Brandom, for example is a focus on the significance of words (albeit from a pragmatic perspective).
Others adopt a more holistic view of pragmatics, like relevance theory, which aims to explore the understanding processes involved in an utterance made by a listener. This method tends to overlook other aspects of pragmatics, like epistemic discussions on truth.
What exactly is pragmatism?
Pragmatism is a philosophical perspective that provides a different perspective to continental and analytic philosophy. Charles Sanders Peirce conceived it, and William James extended it. Later, Josiah Royce developed the philosophy. It had a profound influence on the fields of inquiry from theology of philosophy to philosophy of science, as well as ethics, politics and philosophy of language. The pragmatist tradition continues develop.
The underlying principle of classical pragmatism is the pragmatic maxim, a rule to clarify the meaning of hypotheses by tracing their 'practical consequences' - their implications for the experience of specific situations. This creates an epistemological viewpoint that is a form 'inquiry epistemology' based on inquiry, and an anti Cartesian explanation of the norms governing inquiry. The early pragmatists generally disagreed on the issue of whether pragmatism ought to think of itself as a scientific philosophy that adopts a monism about truth (following Peirce), or a broad-based alethic pluralism (James and Dewey).
Understanding knowledge is a major concern for the pragmatists. Some pragmatists, such as Rorty, are inclined to be skeptical of any notion of knowledge that is based on'instantaneous' experiences. Others, like Peirce or James, are skeptical of the correspondence theory, which holds that true beliefs are those which accurately represent reality.
Pragmatism also examines the connection between beliefs, reality, and human rationality. It also examines the role of values and virtues, and the purpose and meaning of life. Pragmatists have also come up with a wide variety of ideas and methods in fields such as semiotics, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, ethics, philosophy of science and theology. Some, such as Peirce and Royce, are epistemological relativists, whereas others believe that such relativism is seriously misguided. A resurgence of interest in classical pragmatism during the latter part of the 20th century led to a variety of new developments, including a 'near-side' pragmatism that is concerned with resolution of unclearness and ambiguity and the use of proper names, indexicals, demonstratives and anaphors and a 'far side' pragmatics that looks at the semantics of discourses.
What is the relation between what you say and what you do?
Semantics and Pragmatics are often viewed as being on opposite ends of the continuum with semantics on the near side and pragmatics on the far side. Carston, for instance, argues that contemporary pragmatics has at least three principal lines: those who view it as a philosophy in the tradition of Grice and those who concentrate on its interaction with grammar and those who are concerned with utterance interpretation. Near-side pragmatics covers issues like the resolution of ambiguity, the use of proper names indexicals, demonstratives anaphoras, and presupposition. It is also believed to address some issues that involve definite descriptions.
What is the connection between pragmatism and semantics?
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in language placed within context. It is a part of linguistics which studies the way people utilize language to convey various meanings. It is often contrasted to semantics, which focuses on the literal meaning of words within a sentence or chunk of speech.
The relationship between pragmatism and semantics is a complex one. The primary difference is that pragmatics considers other factors than literal meanings of words, such as the intended meaning and the context that a statement was made. This gives a more naive understanding of the meaning behind an utterance. Semantics also considers the relationship between words while pragmatics concentrates more on the relationship between interlocutors and their contextual features.
In recent years the neopragmatism movement has been focusing heavily on the philosophy of metaphilosophy and language. In this way, it has largely left behind classical pragmatism's metaphysics and value theory. Neopragmatists are working on developing metaethics that is based on the ideas of classical pragmatism about practicality and experience.
Classical pragmatism was initially developed by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James. Both were influential thinkers who wrote many books. Their works are still popular today.
While pragmatism may be a viable alternative to the dominant analytic and continental philosophical traditions however, it does not come without its critics. Some philosophers, for example, have argued that deconstructionism is not an entirely new philosophy and that pragmatism simply represents an expression.
In addition to these criticisms, pragmatism itself has been questioned by scientific and technological developments. Pragmatists, for pragmatickr example, have had a difficult time reconciling their views on science with the development of the theory of evolution which was conceived by Richard Dawkins, a non-pragmatist.
Despite these challenges the pragmatism movement continues to grow in popularity across the globe. It is a third option to continental and analytic philosophy traditions, and has a wide range of practical application. It is a growing area of study. Numerous schools of thought have emerged and incorporated pragmatism elements in their own philosophical frameworks. There are a variety of resources available to help you understand more about pragmatism and how to apply it to your everyday life.