Pragmatics and Semantics
Many modern philosophical perspectives are based on semantics. Brandom, for example, focuses on the meaning of words (albeit from a pragmatic point of view).
Others take a more comprehensive perspective on pragmatics, such as relevance theory, which attempts to understand the processes of an utterance by a hearer. This approach tends to ignore other aspects of pragmatics, like epistemic discussions on truth.
What is pragmatism, exactly?
Pragmatism is a philosophical approach that offers a viable alternative to continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. Charles Sanders Peirce conceived the concept, and William James extended it. Later, Josiah Royce developed the philosophy. It had a profound effect on the fields of inquiry from philosophy of theology to philosophy of science, but also on ethics, politics and philosophy of language. The pragmatist tradition continues develop.
The pragmatic principle is at the heart of classical pragmatics. It is a principle that clarifies the meaning of hypotheses by examining their 'practical implications', or their implications for the experience of particular situations. This creates a distinct epistemological perspective that is a form of 'inquiry epistemology based on inquiry' and an anti Cartesian explanation of the rules that govern inquiry. The early pragmatists were divided on whether pragmatism was a science-based philosophy that adopted a monism regarding truth (following Peirce) or a broad alethic pluralitism (James &