Against rationalistic pragmatics

Abstract Is it rational to accept the claims of ‘rationalistic pragmatics’ — (RP) such as (1) the postulate of the ‘rationality of human behavior’, (2) the deterministic approach, (3) the principle of methodological reductionism? Is there a deductive relationship between the theoretical assumptions of RP and the descriptive analyses based on them? Are concepts of RP such as ‘rationality’ and ‘face’ predictable? What is the function of context in RP? What are the basic pragmatic paradoxes in RP? Is there any reasonable alternative to RP? These and related questions will be addressed in this paper.

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