Full Description
Inferentialism is a philosophical approach premised on the claim that an item of language (or thought) acquires meaning (or content) in virtue of being embedded in an intricate set of social practices normatively governed by inferential rules. Inferentialism found its paradigmatic formulation in Robert Brandom's landmark book Making it Explicit, and over the last two decades it has established itself as one of the leading research programs in the philosophy of language and the philosophy of logic. While Brandom's version of inferentialism has received wide attention in the philosophical literature, thinkers friendly to inferentialism have proposed and developed new lines of inquiry that merit wider recognition and critical appraisal.
From Rules to Meaning brings together new essays that systematically develop, compare, assess and critically react to some of the most pertinent recent trends in inferentialism. The book's four thematic sections seek to apply inferentialism to a number of core issues, including the nature of meaning and content, reconstructing semantics, rule-oriented models and explanations of social practices and inferentialism's historical influence and dialogue with other philosophical traditions. With contributions from a number of distinguished philosophers—including Robert Brandom and Jaroslav Peregrin—this volume is a major contribution to the philosophical literature on the foundations of logic and language.
Contents
Introduction: Inferentialism's Years of Travel and Its Logico-Philosophical Calling Ladislav Koreň and Vojtěch Kolman
Part I: Language and Meaning
1. Grounding Assertion and Acceptance in Mental Imagery Christopher Gauker
2. Semantics: Why Rules Ought to Matter Hans-Johann Glock
3. Quine Peregrinating: Norms, Dispositions, and Analyticity Gary Kemp
4. Let's Admit Defeat: Assertion, Denial, and Retraction Bernhard Weiss
Part II: Logic and Semantics
5. Inferentialism, Structure, and Conservativeness Ole Hjortland and Shawn Standefer
6. From Logical Expressivism to Expressivist Logics: Sketch of a Program and Some Implementations Robert Brandom
7. Inferentialist-Expressivism for Explanatory Vocabulary Jared Millson, Kareem Khalifa, and Mark Risjord
8. Logical Expressivism and Logical Relations Lionel Shapiro
9. Propositional Contents and the Logical Space Ladislav Koreň
10. Assertion, Inference, and the Conditional Peter Milne
Part III: Rules, Agency, and Explanation
11. Natural Cultural Inferentialism Joseph Rouse
12. Inferentialism: Where Do We Go from Here? Jaroslav Peregrin
13. The Nature and Diversity of Rules Vladimír Svoboda
14. Governed by Rules, or Subjects to Rules? Ondřej Beran
Part IV: History and Present
15. Inferentialism after Kant Danielle Macbeth
16. Inferentialism, Naturalism, and the Ought-To-Be's of Perceptual Cognition James O'Shea
17. Inferentialism and Its Mathematical Precursor Vojtěch Kolman
18. Inferentialism and the Reception of Testimony Leila Haaparanta
