The Influence Of Peirce's Pragmatic Thoughts On The Origin Of Pragmatics

Pragmatics, as a new branch of linguistics, develops and flourishes in recentdecades. Among the prominent studies, pragmatics is one of the most active andachieved fields. However, behind its great achievement and splendor hides theprofound deposit of thoughts. It is regretted to comment that while we bringing inPragmatics and absorbing its nutrition, we have neglected its philosophical origin.The reason why some scholars even consider Pragmatics derives directly from thestudy of linguistics is that we have overlooked a fundamental fact that their researchof language was originally on the track of philosophical study.Pragmatism movement in American philosophy is the primary factor forexpediting the pragmatics. Pragmatics thoughts are all gestated in philosophers'thought such as Peirce,James,Dewey,Morris, Which lays the foundation for the birthof contemporary pragmatics. The famous American philosopher, logician, semiotistand the founder of Pragmatism—Charles Sanders Peirce, first puts forward thelanguage pragmatism theory. In his opinion, the pragmatism "is the latest philosophywhich advocated that the meaning's theory could solve or eliminate traditionphilosophy problem ". The meaning theory is the foundation and the soul of Peirce'spragmatism philosophy and his philosophy methods is just the meaning method.Peirce doesn't view pragmatism as a metaphysical, but a kind of method, whichfunctions in two ways: 1) Eliminating all unclear and insignificant ideas in essence;2)Clarifying the significance of ideas which are clear in essence but not very clear onthe surface and causing it to be the defined idea. But to clarify the significance of ideaor the concept, they must resort to the actual effect. The significance of concept lies inall the related imaginable actual effects. This is the basic principle of Peirce'smeaning theory, and also the pragmatic spiritual essence as a meaning method. "ThePeirce principle", starting from the meaning, strongly manifests core of the Peirceanpragmatism. He emphasized that the meaning lies in the effect and opposes the barrenphilosophy argument and fruitless thinking labor which laid the foundation for theformation of subsequent American pragmatics thoughts.The Pragmatists such as Dewey and James accept and advocate the meaningtheory of Peirce. Dewey's view on linguistic philosophy of Pragmatism influences thelogical empiricism, modern experimentalism to a great extent. The Americanphilosopher Morris further develops the linguistic theories in pragmatism intoPragmatics, and integrates it into his philosophical theory.This thesis traces along this venation of thought and thus presenting theproducing process of the term "Pragmatics", including the influence of unity ofscience,and the reference of Morris from Peirce's thoughts. Moreover, the Peirce'sthought of Pragmatism and its influence on the birth of Pragmatics are stressed. It isreasonable to say that the probing of the historical background of Pragmatics and theexploring of Peirce's Pragmatism can facilitate our understanding of the past ofPragmatics and foreseeing its future, and thus keep the study of Pragmatics away fromviolating its original purpose or deviation form the right direction. So this thesis isundoubtedly of great significance both theoretical and practical.