Pragmatics and Semantics
Many contemporary philosophical approaches focus on semantics. Brandom for instance is focused on the meaning of words (albeit from a pragmatic point of view).
Others adopt a more holistic approach to pragmatics, such as relevance theory, which aims to explore how an utterance is perceived by the listener. This approach tends to ignore other aspects of pragmatics for instance, epistemic discussions about truth.
What is pragmatism?
Pragmatism provides a different perspective to continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. It was initiated by Charles Sanders Peirce, and extended by his colleague and friend William James, and later developed by Josiah Royce. It had a significant impact on areas of inquiry that span from theology to philosophy of science however, it also found its place in the philosophy of ethics, politics, aesthetics, philosophy of language and social theory. The pragmatist tradition continues to develop.
The pragmatic maxim is at the core of classical pragmatism. It is a principle that clarifies the meaning of hypotheses through their 'practical implications', or their implications for the experiences of particular situations. This is the basis for an epistemological viewpoint that is a form of 'inquiry epistemology' based on inquiry, and an anti Cartesian explanation of the rules that govern inquiry. The early pragmatists largely split over the question of whether pragmatism can think of itself as a scientific philosophy that is based on a monism regarding truth (following Peirce), or a broad-based alethic pluralism (James and Dewey).
How to comprehend knowledge is a central question for the pragmatists. Certain pragmatists like Rorty tend to be skeptical of knowledge that is based on a foundation of 'immediate experiences. Others, such as Peirce and James are skeptical of the theory of correspondence that claims to be true which holds that true beliefs are those that represent reality in a 'correct' way.
Other pragmatism-related issues include the relationship between reality and beliefs, the nature of human rationality, the significance of values and virtues, and the significance of life. Pragmatists have also developed a wide range of methods and ideas in fields like semiotics, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion and ethics, philosophy of science, and theology. Some, such as Peirce and Royce, are epistemological relativists. However, others contend that this kind of relativism is completely wrong. The latter half of the 20th century saw the resurgence of interest in classical pragmatics. This resulted in a variety of new developments. This includes a "near-side" pragmatics which is concerned with the resolution of ambiguity indexicals, demonstratives and anaphors. There is also an "far-side" pragmatics which analyzes the semantics in discourses.
What is the relation between what you say and what you do?
Semantics and Pragmatics are regarded as being on opposite ends of the continuum. On the close side, semantics is considered and pragmatics is on the far side. Carston, for example, argues that there are at a minimum three main lines of contemporary pragmatics people who view it as a philosophy along the lines of Grice or others who focus on its interaction with grammar and those who are concerned with utterance interpretation. Near-side pragmatics is believed to include issues like resolution of ambiguity and vagueness as well as references to proper names, indexicals and pragmatickr demonstratives, anaphors, and presupposition. It is also thought to cover some issues involving specific descriptions.
What is the relation between pragmatism and semantics?
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in language placed within context. It is a subset of linguistics, and examines the way that people employ words to convey various meanings. It is often compared to semantics, which looks at the literal meaning of words in the context of a sentence or a larger portion of speech.
The relationship between semantics and pragmatism is a complex one. The main distinction is that pragmatics takes into account other factors than literal meanings of words, including the intended meaning as well as the context the statement was made. This gives a more nuanced understanding to be made of the meaning of a sentence. Semantics is also limited to the relationship between words, while pragmatics is more concerned with the interlocutors' relationships (people who are in conversations) and their contextual aspects.
In recent years the neopragmatism movement been heavily focusing on metaphilosophy as well as the philosophy of language. This has largely abandoned the metaphysics of classical pragmatism and value theory. However, a few neopragmatists are working to develop a metaethics that draws on the pragmatics of classical pragmatism and experiences.
Classical pragmatism was initially created by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James. Both were influential thinkers who wrote a variety of books. Their works are still popular to this day.
Although pragmatism can be considered an alternative to the mainstream analytic and continental philosophical traditions however, it does not come without its critics. Some philosophers, like have said that deconstructionism isn't an entirely new philosophy and that pragmatism merely represents an expression.
In addition to these criticisms, pragmatism has been challenged by technological and scientific advancements. For instance, pragmatists have struggled to reconcile their views on science with the development of evolutionary theory, which was created by a non-pragmatist, Richard Dawkins.
Despite these challenges, the pragmatism continues its growth in its popularity throughout the world. It is an important third option to the continental and analytic philosophical traditions and has many practical applications. It is a growing field of study and has many schools of thought forming and incorporating aspects of pragmatism into their own philosophical framework. There are a variety of resources available to help you understand more about pragmatism and how you can apply it to your everyday life.