Pragmatics and Semantics

A lot of contemporary philosophical theories focus on semantics. For example, Brandom focuses on linguistic meaning (albeit from a pragmatic viewpoint).

Others take a more holistic perspective on pragmatics, such as relevance theory, which seeks to explore the understanding processes of an utterance by a hearer. This view tends to ignore other elements of pragmatics, such as epistemic discussions about truth.

What exactly is pragmatism?

Pragmatism is a philosophical approach that provides a different perspective to continental and analytic philosophy. Charles Sanders Peirce initiated it, and William James extended it. Later, Josiah Royce developed the philosophy. It had a profound influence on areas of inquiry from theology and philosophy to philosophy of science, as well as ethics as well as philosophy of politics and language. The pragmatist tradition continues grow.

The pragmatic principle is at the heart of classical pragmatism. It is a rule that clarifies the meaning of hypotheses via their 'practical implications' or their implications for the experiences of specific situations. This gives rise to an epistemological view that is a form of 'inquiry-based epistemology' and an anti-Cartesian explication of the rules that govern inquiry. The early pragmatists were divided on whether pragmatism was a science-based philosophy that adopted the view that truth is a monism (following Peirce) or a broad alethic pluralitism (James and Dewey).

How to comprehend knowledge is a major concern for pragmatists. Rorty is a pragmatist who is skeptical of any notions of knowledge built on "immediate experiences". Others, like Peirce and James, are sceptical of the theory of correspondence as a source of truth, according to which true beliefs are those that reflect reality in a 'correct' way.

Pragmatism also focuses on the relationship between reality, beliefs, and human rationality. It also focuses on the role of values and virtues as well as the meaning and purpose of life. Pragmatists have also come up with a wide range of methods and ideas in fields such as semiotics and philosophy of language, the philosophy of religion, ethics, philosophy of science, and theology. Some, such as Peirce and Royce are epistemological relativists. However, others believe that such relativity is a serious misguided idea. The 20th century was marked by the resurgence of interest in classical pragmatics. This led to a myriad of new developments. These include the concept of a "near-side" pragmatics which is concerned with the resolution of ambiguity indexicals, demonstratives and anaphors. There is also the "far-side" pragmatics which examines the semantics of discourses.

What is the connection between what you say and what you do?

Semantics and Pragmatics are often thought of as being on opposite sides of the continuum, with semantics on the near side and pragmatics on the other side. Carston, for example, argues that there are at most three general types of modern pragmatics people who view it as a philosophy along the lines of Grice and others