Communicative Pragmatism and Other Philosophical Essays on Language

Download or read book Communicative Pragmatism and Other Philosophical Essays on Language written by Nicholas Rescher and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1998 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this pioneering study of communicative conventions, distinguished philosopher Nicholas Rescher focuses on the principles at work in the communicative use of language. Rescher explores various aspects of explanatory and expository uses of language across a wide range of applications, ranging from the factual to the fictional, and from the expository to the literary. A unifying theme of the book is pragmatic conventionality. Rescher explores the fundamentally pragmatic conception of communicative conventions: rules of procedure that form part of the setting of tacit undertakings that function in various sectors of communicative practice. Only in this setting, he argues, can one achieve an adequate understanding of the way in which the business of communication is actually carried on within its wider setting of its service in the conduct of human affairs.