Constructing a pragmatic foundation for semantics

F. Kambartel

H. J. Schneider

pp. 155-178

in: Guttorm Fløistad, Georg H. Von Wright (eds), Philosophie du langage, logique philosophique / Philosophy of language, philosophical logic, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

We will present here an approach to a philosophical theory of language that might be called "pragmatic in a radical sense". It can be characterized by putting it into the context of two schools of thought: On the one hand there is the broad pragmatic tradition, represented by authors such as G.H. Mead, Ch.S. Peirce, L. Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, and J. Searle. On the other hand there is the school of "constructive" philosophy, initiated by P. Lorenzen and W. Kamlah, to which the authors of this essay have some affinity. We will first comment on some issues related to the broader tradition; the constructive approach will be sketched later, when some details of the theory of symbolic acts, elementary sentences, and the logic of argumentation will be discussed (sections 4–8).

Cited authors

Wittgenstein Ludwig

Peirce Charles Sanders