Pragmatic is the name given to a philosophical project which seeks to answer questions about the relationship between meaning and context, between what people say and the way they say it. It also addresses the nature of language itself and how people manage to communicate in the face of its ambiguity, vagueness and uncertainty. Pragmatics is a field which spans many disciplines, including linguistics, philosophy, sociology, psychology and logic. Its development began in the United States around 1870 and it presents a third alternative to the analytic and continental (Continental) philosophical traditions worldwide. Its key proponents include Charles Sanders Peirce who defined the theory and William James who popularized it.
A person who is pragmatic is someone who takes the real world into consideration when making decisions. For example, a pragmatic person would know that traffic can get bad in Seattle, so they would leave early when traveling there. This type of person is also able to compromise when needed.
The term pragmatic is derived from the Greek word pragmatikos, which means “practical” or “realistic.” In contrast to theoretical or idealistic notions, pragmatics focuses on how things work in the real world, not just how they should or could be. This approach has become a staple in applied fields like public administration, leadership studies, political science and organizational management, as well as in the teaching of ethics.
Contemporary pragmatists argue that the structure of thinking is a product of the interaction of an intelligent organism with its environment and that cognition develops via exploratory inference. They see the ability to learn as a core cognitive skill that remains relevant throughout life. These pragmatist ideas are being reflected in liberatory philosophical projects such as feminism and ecology, as well as more traditional ones like existentialism and utilitarianism.
There are a few broad categories in which modern pragmatics can be categorized: those who focus on the interaction between pragmatics and grammar, those who concentrate on the pragmatist conception of meaning, and those who see pragmatics as an empirical psychological theory of utterance interpretation. However, even within these broad categories there are a number of sub-disciplines, each of which has its own emphases and concerns.
One of the most important issues in pragmatism is how the concepts of meaning and purpose are developed and applied. This is especially important in the use of pragmatics as an ethical framework, where pragmatic values are often used to guide moral decisions.
One of the most significant developments in contemporary pragmatics has been the emphasis on the role of the Communicative Intention, a concept introduced by Paul Grice in the 1970s. This has led to the development of what are called the ‘Gricean Maxims,’ which are four general pragmatic rules that seem to apply in most situations and languages: be cooperative, be clear, be concise, and be pertinent. These rules have helped to provide a coherent framework for understanding and interpreting utterances, and they are the basis of much pragmatics research today.