Pragmatics is the study of how context influences meaning in language. It takes into account social, cultural, and situational factors that influence how we use language in a given context. This is different from semantics, which studies what a word or phrase means in a literal sense.
A person who is pragmatic is someone who is more concerned with how things work in real life than with abstract ideas. For example, a four-year old who wants a unicorn for her birthday is not being very pragmatic. The term pragmatism comes from the Greek pragma, meaning “deed.” The word is also used to describe a philosophy or style of thinking that values practicality over ideals.
The pragmatists were among the first to apply philosophy to the problems of human life, and their ideas are still influential today. They developed a broad perspective on knowledge and learning, and emphasized the importance of experience and experimentation in understanding reality. They resisted the belief that there is any fundamental nature that makes some experiences and concepts more true or valid than others, and they did not believe that reality can be objectively defined.
Although the pragmatists were diverse in background, they shared certain methods and a basic approach to philosophical inquiry. They were especially active in the social sciences, where they contributed to sociology, anthropology, psychology, and education. They were also concerned with the natural environment, promoting environmental conservation and progressive social reforms.
The classical pragmatists were Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), who formulated the pragmatic philosophy; his Harvard colleague William James (1842-1910), who refined and popularized it; and John Dewey (1860-1952). Dewey’s wide-ranging writings had a major impact on American intellectual life for a half-century. Other important pragmatists include G.H. Mead (1934), who contributed significant pragmatist insights to social science; and Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1914).
A pragmatist is someone who follows the principle of “practice makes perfect.” They are willing to learn from experience and to adapt their beliefs according to what they discover through experimentation. The pragmatists were among those who pioneered the modern philosophy of science, developing an original a posteriori epistemology. They also influenced the theory of evolution and were early proponents of a pragmatic philosophy of education.
As a movement, pragmatism has continued to develop since its inception around 1870. It now represents a viable third alternative to the two main analytic and continental philosophical traditions. The pragmatists have made significant contributions to several subfields of philosophy, including metaphysics, ethics, theology, logic, and social and political philosophy.
One of the most important developments is computational pragmatics, which focuses on the ways in which contextual information can help disambiguate the meaning of language and information. The process, integral to the science of natural language processing, helps computers more accurately simulate human information processing and communication abilities. It is also central to the field of artificial intelligence, where it is used to improve computer systems’ ability to distinguish between ambiguous statements.