Pragmatics and Semantics

Many modern philosophical perspectives are based on semantics. Brandom for instance, focuses on the meaning of words (albeit from a pragmatic viewpoint).

Others choose an approach that is more holistic to pragmatics, like relevance theory, that aims to determine how an utterance is perceived by the person listening. However, this method tends to neglect other elements of pragmatism, like epistemic debates over truth.

What exactly is pragmatism?

Pragmatism offers an alternative to continental philosophy 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 of philosophy to philosophy of science, but also ethics as well as philosophy of politics and language. The pragmatist tradition continues develop.

The fundamental premise of classical pragmatism is the pragmatic maxim, Pragmatickr which is a guideline for defining the meaning of hypotheses by investigating their 'practical consequences' - their implications for specific situations. This leads to an epistemological perspective that is a form of 'inquiry-based epistemology' and an anti-Cartesian explication of the rules that govern inquiry. The early pragmatists generally disagreed on the issue of whether pragmatism ought to think of itself as a scientific philosophy that focuses on a monism of truth (following Peirce), or a broad-based alethic pluralism (James and Dewey).

How to comprehend knowledge is a central question for pragmatists. Rorty is one of the pragmatists who is skeptical of any theories of knowledge that are based on 'immediate experiences'. Others, such as Peirce or James, are skeptical of the theory of correspondence, which asserts that the most authentic beliefs are those which accurately reflect reality.

Pragmatism also examines the connection between reality, beliefs, and human rationality. It examines the importance of virtues and values, and the meaning and purpose of our lives. Pragmatists have also come up with a wide range of methods and ideas in areas such as semiotics and philosophy of language, philosophy of religion and philosophy of science, ethics and theology. Some, such as Peirce or Royce are epistemological relativism, while others claim that this relativism is a mistake. The late 20th century saw a revival of interest in classical pragmatics. This led to a myriad of new developments. They include a "near-side" pragmatics that is concerned with the resolution of ambiguity, indexicals, demonstratives and anaphors as well as an "far-side" pragmatics that examines the semantics of discourses.

What is the relation between what is said and what happens?

Semantics and Pragmatics can be seen as being on opposite ends of the continuum. On the side that is near, semantics are viewed and pragmatics is situated on the other side. Carston, for example claims that there are at a minimum three main lines of contemporary pragmatics: those who view it as a philosophy along the lines of Grice or others who focus on its interaction with grammar