https://pragmatickr.com/ Pragmatics and Semantics A variety of contemporary philosophical approaches to pragmatics focus on semantics. Brandom for instance is a focus on the meaning of words (albeit from a pragmatic perspective). Others take an approach that is more holistic to pragmatics, such as relevance theory, which aims to explore how an utterance is understood by the hearer. This method tends to overlook other aspects of pragmatics, for instance, epistemic discussions about truth. What is pragmatism? Pragmatism is a philosophical outlook that provides a different perspective to analytic philosophy and continental philosophy. It was conceived by Charles Sanders Peirce and expanded by his colleague and friend William James, and later developed by Josiah Royce. It was influential in areas of inquiry ranging from philosophy of science to theology however, it also found its place in ethics as well as aesthetics, philosophy of language, and social theory. The pragmatist tradition continues grow. The fundamental premise of classical pragmatism is the pragmatic maxim, a principle to clarify the meaning of hypotheses by tracing their 'practical consequences' - their implications for the experience of specific situations. This creates an epistemological view that is a form of 'inquiry-based epistemology' as well as an anti-Cartesian interpretation of the rules that govern inquiry. The earliest pragmatists, however largely split over the question of whether pragmatism should conceive of itself as a philosophical system that adopts a monism about truth (following Peirce), or a broad-based alethic pluralism (James and Dewey). How to understand knowledge is the main concern for the pragmatists. Certain pragmatists, like Rorty, are inclined to be skeptical of any notion of knowledge that rests on the basis of 'instantaneous' experiences. Others, like Peirce or James are skeptical of the correspondence theory, which holds that true beliefs are those which accurately reflect