The Paradox of Thought Experiments in Pragmatics (SpringerBriefs in Linguistics)

The development of pragmatics has been shaped by thought experiments without which it could not have become an autonomous subfield of linguistics.However, their nature and their impact on current trends in pragmatics has not yet been made subject to systematic scrutiny.The book addresses that gap by confronting a central puzzle: How can thought experiments in pragmatics yield new experiential information about communication when they take place entirely within the researcher’s imagination.The volume offers a clear and original answer by showing that their power lies not in invention or speculation, but in a disciplined process of argumentative re evaluation of existing experiential knowledge. The book is unique in at least two respects. First, it presents carefully elaborated case studies on Searle’s and Grice’s seminal thought experiments, which yield an original solution to the paradox.The key idea of the solution is that thought experiments in pragmatics neither generate new experie