Pragmatics is a way of looking at language and meaning that is context-based. It looks at what a word or phrase means in context, and how it changes depending on the culture of the person using it. It also takes into account non-verbal cues and other things that are going on in the environment of a person when they use a particular word or phrase. It is different from semantics which focuses on the literal meaning of a word and syntax which focuses on relationships among words.
When a person is pragmatic, they are more concerned with results and consequences than with idealistic notions of what could or should be. They take into consideration the culture of the situation when making decisions, and are not afraid to make sacrifices for success. For example, if they are trying to save wildlife, they might decide to settle a lawsuit that will bring in more money than fighting the case in court and possibly losing it. They might also be willing to compromise in business deals, as long as the end result is beneficial to everyone involved.
Pragmatism first appeared in the US around 1870 and presents a growing third alternative to analytic and Continental philosophy traditions worldwide. Its first generation was initiated by the so-called classic pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce, who first defined and defended this view, and his Harvard colleague William James, who further developed and popularized it. Another pragmatist, Josiah Royce, who was formally allied with absolute idealism but in practice embraced pragmatism, also made important contributions to the philosophical movement.
Today, a vibrant Pragmatic philosophy research community exists in the US and abroad, and is expanding globally. The pragmatists’ method of inquiry-based epistemology has been influential in a variety of disciplines, including psychology and social science. Their pragmatic theory of truth has influenced discourse ethics, which has contributed to the development of a new paradigm for social scientific methodology, and their understanding of communication and meaning has led to major contributions in such diverse fields as metaphysics, linguistics, philosophy of religion and aesthetics.
While a variety of experimental studies show that people pragmatically interpret and produce various aspects of communicative meaning, profound variations in experimental outcomes have given rise to an issue within psychology, now widely referred to as the “replication crisis,” which raises serious doubts about some earlier experimental findings in general. These differences are related to a lack of theoretical clarity and an overreliance on certain assumptions in the design and interpretation of experimental data (see below).
In order to overcome these problems, researchers need to fully acknowledge the particular people who participate in their experiments, and the implicit or explicit tasks they are asked to perform. The pragmatist maxim that every utterance is pragmatically situated from its beginnings should be the starting point for theories of language processing and linguistic pragmatics. In addition, it is essential to have a clear understanding of how the concepts that are being studied are derived from real-world communication practices and their social and cultural contexts.