Pragmatic is a philosophy of language that emphasizes context in the interpretation of utterances and statements. The term is generally applied to a philosophy of human communication that includes, but is not restricted to, spoken and written speech, as well as non-verbal communications such as gestures and facial expressions. Pragmatic philosophers have taken a broad range of positions on the nature and function of meaning in communication and have also addressed the problem of truth and knowledge.
In general, pragmatists have distinguished pragmatics from semantics and syntax (or syntactics). Semantics deals with the relation of signs to the objects they may or do denote; pragmatics focuses on the interpreting organisms of the signs, and the linguistic and extra-linguistic circumstances that affect their functioning as interpreters.
The pragmatists have a long history in the philosophy of language, and their ideas are still influential today. Their most prominent disciples include Davidson, Mead, James, and Dewey. Although they all differed from one another, they shared a common philosophical approach. Their work is characterized by an emphasis on the role of context in the interpretation of meanings and intentions, a rejection of the notion that some things are objectively true or false, and an emphasis on the importance of experience as the source of knowledge.
Although pragmatists reject pure realism and skepticism, they have always been more than mere empiricists. In fact, some of them vehemently rebuffed the Lockean idea that the mind is a blank slate on which Nature impresses itself or a dark chamber into which experience flows, and they have embraced the Kantian view that knowing is akin to seeing or beholding.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the classical pragmatist triumvirate had great impact on American intellectual life. But as the practice of philosophy was consolidated into a self-conscious discipline, with a growing emphasis on technical contributions to logic and the philosophy of science, pragmatism lost its momentum. Despite Quine’s qualified enthusiasm for certain aspects of the pragmatist legacy, analytic philosophers largely ignored pragmatism until the 1980s.
Since that time, some philosophers have returned to the study of pragmatics. In particular, a number of contemporary analytic philosophers have developed and extended the work of Davidson, Mead, and James, while also addressing problems such as relevance theory, the nature of truth, and the structure of language and discourse. The Blackwell Companion to Pragmatism provides a detailed overview of these developments and an introduction to the most important writers in this tradition. The book includes a substantial bibliography of works on the history of pragmatics and an extensive list of recommended further reading. The Blackwell Companion to Pragmatism is available at most libraries. It can be ordered from the publisher, Wiley-Blackwell, through its online bookstore at www.blackwellcompaniononline.com/bookstore/. The book has been updated to reflect the most recent advances in the field of linguistic pragmatics. It will continue to be updated as new developments emerge. The authors of the book are also available to address questions about the text and its content.