Pragmatic is a philosophy that seeks to understand how language and the other aspects of human communication work in a context. It’s a theory of meaning that goes beyond semantics and includes the social, cultural, and situational factors that go into making an utterance understood. In the broader sense, pragmatics is the knowledge that allows us to navigate through our daily lives and make good choices. This includes the way we speak and what we believe about the world around us. For example, pragmatics is what enables us to politely hedge our bets in conversations and take others’ perspectives into consideration when choosing a political position.
The term ‘pragmatic’ is also used as a compliment to describe people who are reasonable and logical. It’s often contrasted with idealistic people who have a strong sense of what they think is right. A middle of the road political position, for instance, is considered pragmatic since it takes arguments from both sides into account without necessarily leaning in one direction or the other. This pragmatic approach to the world is what many people strive for in their daily lives.
A number of philosophers have developed pragmatist views on different topics. For instance, the philosophy of science developed by George Herbert Mead is pragmatist in nature. So is the philosophy of religion by W.E.B Du Bois, a renowned African-American scholar. It’s also possible to see a pragmatist perspective on ethics and morality in the writings of Jürgen Habermas, who developed discourse ethics.
While it’s not as well known as the analytical or continental traditions of philosophy, pragmatism is alive and kicking. It’s now a philosophy that has been embraced by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and medicine.
As the field of pragmatics grows, there are several important issues that scholars need to address. One issue is the fact that experimental results are frequently inconclusive. This relates to a broader concern within psychology, referred to as the replication crisis. The challenge is to improve our ability to replicate existing experimental findings and to understand what is truly going on when our results differ from those of others.
The second important issue is the need to develop a deeper understanding of the cognitive presuppositions that give rise to particular pragmatic phenomena. This is important because it will enable us to provide more useful theoretical frameworks for the empirical study of linguistic pragmatics and its application in real-world settings.
The third and final issue is the need to broaden the scope of pragmatics to include a range of different areas. This will help us to better understand the underlying concepts in a wide variety of areas, from the psychology of language and culture to the philosophy of science, ethics, and religion. By developing a more comprehensive theory of pragmatics, we can help our students to become more informed citizens who are better prepared for life in the world. This is a goal that Dewey would certainly endorse.