Motivating inferentialism: Comments on Making It Explicit (Ch. 2)

McDowell, John

doi:10.1075/pc.13.1.10mcd

Article published In:

The Pragmatics of Making it Explicit: On Robert B. Brandom
Edited by Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer
[Pragmatics & Cognition 13:1] 2005
► pp. 121–140

Motivating inferentialism

Comments on Making It Explicit (Ch. 2)

John McDowell | University of Pittsburgh

Brandom’s attempt to motivate inferentialism is found wanting on a number of grounds, including a skepticism about how much recommendation for inferentialism can be derived from the evident unsatisfactoriness of the representationalism Brandom contrasts it with, which seems to be a straw man. Brandom’s appeal to authorities (Sellars, Frege, Dummett) falls flat; in particular, his reading of Frege’s early work as inferentialist in Brandom’s sense is a misinterpretation. Given the programmatic character of Brandom’s recommendation for inferentialism, the quality of the motivation he offers for it matters more than he has acknowledged.

Keywords: sociality, foundationalism, Frege, inferentialist, Kant, linear explanation, Begriffsschrift, pragmatism, conditional, representationalism, deontic structure, semantic self-consciousness, formalism

Published online: 8 August 2005

https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.13.1.10mcd

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