Language and the Structure of Reasons: Pragmatics, Semantics, and Logic (2024)
Ulf Hlobil, Pitt Ph.D. 2016
Daniel Scott Kaplan, Pitt Ph.D. 2021
John MacFarlane, Pitt Ph.D. 2000
Ryan Simonelli, Chicago Ph.D. 2022--Pitt Visiting Scholar 2019
Bas van Fraassen, Pitt Ph.D. 1966
Sketch of Bob by Jessica Luo

Language and the Structure of Reasons

Philosophy 2421—Fall 2024—University of Pittsburgh
Bob Brandom
Wednesdays, 1:00pm to 3:30 pm
1008 B Cathedral of Learning
Course Website at sites.pitt.edu/~rbrandom

Course Description
Meeting 1. August 28, 2024:
Introduction to the Course:
Philosophy, Norms, and Reasons. Two Traditions in the Philosophy of Language.
Suggested Reading: • "What Is Philosophy?" (Lecture 1 in Commitments and Concepts, pp. 3-21).
Supplementary:
o Articulating Reasons Introduction, pp. 1-35.
o Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Front Matter.
Meeting 1 Materials:
Video of Meeting 1
Meeting 2. September 4, 2024:
Vocabularies and Metavocabularies
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Introduction.
Supplementary:
o "Vocabularies of Pragmatism" Chapter 8 of Rorty and His Critics (2000), pp. 156-182.
o "Extending the Project of Analysis" Chapter 1 of Between Saying and Doing (2008).
o Rorty "Private Irony and Liberal Hope" Chapter 4 of Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
Meeting 2 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 2
Video of Week 2 Meeting
Bob's Notes for Week 2
Announcement of imminent international meeting on RLLR and related books.
Meeting 3. September 11, 2024:
A Minimal Two-Sorted Deontic Bilateral Normative Pragmatic Metavocabulary for Reason Relations
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Chapter 1.
Supplementary:
o MacFarlane "In What Sense (if Any) Is Logic Normative for Thought?" (2004).
o Simonellli "Why Must Incompatibility Be Symmetric?" (2024).
Background:
* Harman "Logic and Reasoning" (1984)
* Restall "Multiple Conclusions" (2004)
Meeting 3 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 3
Video of Week 3 Meeting
Bob's Notes for Week 3
Announcement of imminent international meeting on RLLR and related books.
Meeting 4. September 18, 2024:
Bimodal Conceptual Realism
Suggested Reading • "A Tune Beyond Us, Yet Ourselves" (2024).
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Chapter 4.
Supplementary:
o Hlobil, "Laws of Thought and Laws of Truth as Two Sides of One Coin" (2021).
o Fine, "A Theory of Truthmaker Content I: Conjunction, Disjunction, and Negation" (2017).
o Fine, "A Theory of Truthmaker Content II: Subject-Matter, Common Content, Remainder and Ground" (2017).
Meeting 4 Materials:
Outline for Meeting 4
Handout for Meeting 4
Video of Week 4 Meeting
Bob's Notes for Meeting 4
Facilities Cancellation September 25, 2024
No Class October 2, 2024
Meeting 5. October 9, 2024:
The Open Structure of Material Reason Relations
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Chapter 2.
Meeting 5 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 5
Video of Meeting 5
Bob's Notes for Meeting 5
Supplementary Material:
o Price, "Why 'Not'?"
o Brandom "An Introduction to Hegelian Logic and Metaphysics"
o Hlobil "Choosing your Nonmonotonic Logic: A Shopper's Guide"
Meeting 6. October 16, 2024:
Logical Expressivism and Expressivist Logic
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Chapter 3.
Supplementary:
o "Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism" (Chapter 1 of Articulating Reasons).
o Substructural Content Dan Kaplan's Pitt Ph.D. Dissertation 2022.
o Brandom "From Logical Expressivism to Expressivist Logics"
Meeting 6 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 6
Video of Meeting 6
Bob's Notes for Meeting 6
Meeting 7. October 23, 2024:
Implication-Space Semantics: The Pure Theory of Conceptual Roles
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons (2024), Chapter 5.
Supplementary:
Meeting 7 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 7
Video of Meeting 7
Bob's Notes for Meeting 7
Meeting 8. October 30, 2024:
The Metaphysics of Normativity and the Social Dimension of Discursive Practice
Suggested Reading •"The Fine Structure of Autonomy and Recognition" (Lecture 1 of Brentano Lectures--2019)
Supplementary:
o "A Social Route from Reasoning to Representing" (Chapter 5 of Articulating Reasons).
o "Ascribing Propositional Attitudes" (Chapter 8 of Making It Explicit).
o Appendix on interated de re/de dicto ascriptions of propositional attitude, from Making It Explicit.
Meeting 8 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 8
Outline of Meeting 8
Video of Meeting 8
Bob's Notes for Meeting 8
Meeting 9. November 6, 2024:
Empirical and Historical Dimensions of Conceptual Content:
Normative Governance and Subjunctive Tracking. Recollection and Explicitation.
Suggested Reading • "Representation, Expression, and Recollection" (Lecture 2 of Brentano Lectures--2019)
Supplementary:
o "A Speculative Synthesis"Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Epilogue.
Meeting 9 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 9
Video of Meeting 9
Bob's Notes for Meeting 9
Meeting 10. November 13, 2024:
Semantically Significant Essentially Subsentential Structure I:
What Are Singular Terms, and Why Are There Any?
Suggested Reading • "What Are Singular Terms, and Why Are There Any?" (Chapter 4 of Articulating Reasons).
Suggested Reading • "Substituton: What Are Singular Terms, and Why Are There Any", Chapter 6 of MIE.
Supplementary:
Meeting 10 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 10
Video of Meeting 10
Meeting 11. November 20, 2024:
Semantically Significant Essentially Subsentential Structure (and Substructure) II:
Dissecting Reason Relations with a Substitutional Scalpel
Suggested Reading • Van Fraassen "Quantification as an Act of Mind" (1982)
Suggested Reading • Brandom "Singular Terms and Sentential Sign Designs" (1987)
Suggested Reading • Hlobil "Subsentential Syntax (ROLE Note 192)" (2024)
Supplementary:
o Fine: "Neutral Relations" (2000)
o Macbride: "Neutral Relations Revisited" (2007)
o Quine: "Shoenfinkel on the Building-Blocks of Mathematical Logic" (1924)
o Brandom: A Binary Sheffer Operator that Does the Work of Quantifiers and Sentential Connectives" (1979)
o Brandom: "The Significance of Complex Numbers for Frege's Philosophy of Mathematics" (2002)
Meeting 11 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 11
Introductory Notes for Meeting 11
Video of Meeting 11
No Class November 27, 2024:
Thanksgiving Holiday Break
Meeting 12. December 4, 2023:
Cutting Finer than Substitution: Token Recurrence Structures
Conclusion
Suggested Reading • "Anaphora: The Structure of Token Repeatables", Chapter 7 of Making It Explicit.
Suggested Reading • Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Chapter 6, Conclusion.
Supplementary:
o Brandom: "Reference Explained Away" (1984)
o Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Endmatter (Bibliography and Index).
Meeting 12 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 12
Notes for Meeting 12
Video of Meeting 12