Pragmatic
The philosophy of pragmatism has been a powerful force in American culture for over a century, and its influence continues to expand in scholarly circles. Its themes of truth as useful and knowledge as action resonate strongly with today’s political leaders, educators, scientists, philosophers, and business executives. Pragmatism’s interdisciplinary scope has expanded in recent years, with a growing network of pragmatic scholars and practitioners around the world.
Classical pragmatists developed an original a posteriori epistemology, arguing that the best way to know the world is through direct experience. They also emphasized the role of language and thought as tools to understand our experiences. Their epistemological and philosophical approach has been embraced by many modern academic disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, cognitive science, education, leadership studies, political science, and social work.
After a period of decline in the 1970s, pragmatism has experienced a strong revival in recent decades. Richard Rorty’s bold and iconoclastic attacks on mainstream epistemology prompted a response from neopragmatists such as Hilary Putnam and Robert Brandom, who sought to rehabilitate classical pragmatist ideals of objectivity. These thinkers have interpreted contemporary philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic through the lens of pragmatism.
Pragmatists have been particularly influential in the study of human language. Their research in pragmatics examines the nature of language as an ‘in-situ’ practice that combines various elements to produce meaning in particular contexts. These elements include a speaker’s beliefs and intentions, the actual circumstances of their utterances, the meanings that speakers and listeners interpret, and what they manage to communicate. The scholarly field of pragmatics is highly interdisciplinary, incorporating the philosophy of language and cognitive science (see linguistic pragmatics, phenomenological pragmatics, and metapragmatics).
The experimental literature on human pragmatics produces widely varied results, reflecting a number of factors, including the different ways that people use language in context and how they construct the ‘rules’ for making sense of what others say. This is a reflection of the complex nature of the phenomena that researchers seek to describe and explain.
A major challenge facing experimental pragmatics is the problem of identifying and measuring the various facets of pragmatic experience that contribute to people’s ability to communicate effectively. In addition, the increasing attention given to the phenomenon of replication in psychology raises the concern that the failure of any one experiment to replicate an earlier finding should be viewed with caution (see the replication crisis). Experimental pragmatics must therefore focus on better examining the people we are studying and the specific tasks used for our assessments, as well as recognizing the many bodily, linguistic, and situational factors that make up human pragmatics. This will enable us to develop more sophisticated theories of the role that pragmatics plays in human communication.