Pragmatics is the study of the way language is used by speakers, in particular focusing on communicative intentions and linguistic acts. It is also the study of context-dependent phenomena arising from the use of words. Such phenomena include ambiguity, indexicality and conversational implicature. Pragmatics is therefore considered a sub-discipline of semantics and philosophy of language.
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that, in its most basic form, denies the validity of claims to truth or reality based on innate knowledge. Instead, it advocates the adoption of theories whose practical value has been demonstrated through experience, and only in so far as they can be verified through experience.
While the pragmatist tradition does not have a clear creed, certain ideas have dominated. The most distinctive of these are Peirce’s view that beliefs are rules for action; James’ teleological understanding of the mind; Sellars’ rejection of the notion that perception is unmediated; Rorty’s repudiation of the Lockean idea that the mind resembles Nature’s bucket into which experiences pour; and Davidson’s criticism of the theory that the mind has a subjective existence. These ideas emancipate pragmatists from the optional assumptions of the empiricism that preceded them.
In addition, pragmatism has also been distinguished from the traditional empiricist doctrine that the only source of justification is the direct verification of our experiences, i.e., that perception is purely reception. This foundational picture is, to pragmatists, akin to the mystical pictures of the mind that were cherished by Kantian empiricists.
For the most part, pragmatists have opposed such fundamentalism, and indeed the entire Cartesian tradition of rationalism, in favor of a more modest position that recognizes our ability to formulate useful theories and worldviews, and that these will be influenced by our environment, the culture we live in, and the experiences we have had. Moreover, the pragmatists have been keen on liberating philosophy from its optional assumptions and allowing it to function as a discipline for solving concrete problems.
Despite this, pragmatists have been unable to agree on the major issues that are to be addressed in their work. They have often disagreed about what constitutes a pragmatic view of truth and what is the proper role of philosophy. This diversity may seem commendable in keeping with pragmatism’s professed commitment to pluralism, but it has also led to accusations that pragmatism is incoherent and has no firm center of gravity.