Metavocabularies of Reason:
Pragmatics, Logic, and Semantics
Philosophy 2420—Fall 2022—University of Pittsburgh
Bob Brandom
Wednesdays, 1:00pm to 3:30 pm
Course Website at sites.pitt.edu/~rbrandom
Syllabus
Introduction to the Course:
A Metarationalist Perspective on Language, Logic, and Meaning
• Read Brandom, Articulating Reasons Introduction, pp. 1-35.
• Read Brandom, "Intentionality and Language: A Normative, Pragmatist, Inferentialist Approach".
Week 1 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 1: Introduction
Brandom's notes for Meeting 1: Introduction
Video of Meeting 1: Introduction
Audio of Meeting 1: Introduction
Supplementary:
Pragmatics I:
The 'Vocabulary' Vocabulary, and
Normative Pragmatic Metavocabularies for Autonomous Discursive Practices
• Read Brandom, Making It Explicit, Chapter One.
• Read Brandom, Articulating Reasons, Chapter Six, pp. 185-196.
Week 2 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 2: Pragmatics I
Brandom's notes for Meeting 2: Pragmatics I
Video of Meeting 2: Pragmatics I
Audio of Meeting 2: Pragmatics I
Pragmatic Metavocabulary Meaning-Use Diagram
Supplementary:
Pragmatics II:
A Deepened Normative Bilaterialism and Reason Relations
• Read Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons Chapter 1 (draft).
• Read MacFarlane "In What Sense (If Any) is Logic Normative for Thought?"
Week 3 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 3: Pragmatics II
Brandom's notes for Meeting 3: Pragmatics II
Video of Meeting 3: Pragmatics II
Audio of Meeting 3: Pragmatics II
Supplementary Material:
Reason Relations I:
The Open Structure of Non-Logical Reason Relations
• Read Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Introduction (draft), pp. 14-32.
• Read Brandom, "From Logical Expressivism to Expressivist Logics" Sections I, II (pp. 1-9).
• Read Brandom, "On the Structure of Reasons: Pragmatics, Semantics, and Logic," Section V (pp. 36-45).
Week 4 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 4: Reason Relations I
Brandom's notes for Meeting 4: Reason Relations I
Video of Meeting 4: Reason Relations I
Audio of Meeting 4: Reason Relations I
Supplementary Material:
Reason Relations II:
What are the relations between reasons and logic?
Metavocabularies
• Read Brandom, "From Logical Expressivism to Expressivist Logics" Sections III-VI (pp. 9-23).
• Read Brandom, Articulating Reasons, Chapter One.
Week 5 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 5: Reason Relations II
Brandom's notes for Meeting 5: Reason Relations II
Video of Meeting 5: Reason Relations II
Audio of Meeting 5: Reason Relations II
Supplementary Material:
o Hlobil "Choosing Your Nonmonotonic Logic: A Shopper's Guide."
o Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Introduction.
o Ripley "On the 'transitivity' of consequence relations"
Logic I:
Logical Expressivism. Sequent Calculi and NM-MS
• Read Kaplan, "A Multi-Succedent Sequent Calculus for Logical Expressivists"
• Read Brandom, "On the Structure of Reasons: Pragmatics, Semantics, and Logic," Section VI (pp. 46-56).
Week 6 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 6: Logic I
Brandom's notes for Meeting 6: Logic I
Video of Meeting 6: Logic I
Audio of Meeting 6: Logic I
Supplementary Material:
o Gentzen "Investigation into Logical Deduction," Section III, pp. 295-306.
o Brandom Between Saying and Doing, Chapter Two
o Kaplan Pitt Dissertation 2021 "Substructural Content" pp. 1-39.
Logic II:
Logical Expressivism and Expressive Completeness: A Representation Theorem
With Special Guest Star: Dan Kaplan
• Read Kaplan Selections from his 2021 Pitt Ph.D. Dissertation "Substructural Content"
• Read Brandom, "On the Structure of Reasons: Pragmatics, Semantics, and Logic," Section VII (pp. 57-68).
Week 7 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 7: Logic II
Bob's Notes for Meeting 7: Logic II
Dan Kaplan's Notes for Meeting 7: Logic II
Video of Meeting 7: Logic II
Audio of Meeting 7: Logic II
Supplementary Material:
Semantics I:
Truthmaker Semantics, Bilateralism, and Reason Relations
With Special Guest Star: Ulf Hlobil
• Read Hlobil, Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Chapter 4 (old 3) draft
• Read Hlobil, "The Laws of Thought and the Laws of Truth as Two Sides of One Coin"
Week 8 Materials:
Bob's Handout for Meeting 8: Semantics I
Ulf's slides for Meeting 8: "Truth-Taking and Truth-Making"
Video of Meeting 8: Semantics I
Audio of Meeting 8: Semantics I
Supplementary Material:
Semantics II:
Implication-Space Semantics
With Special Guest Star: Dan Kaplan
• Read Hlobil, Reasons for Logic, Logic for Reasons, Chapter 5 (draft)
• Read Brandom, "On the Structure of Reasons: Pragmatics, Semantics, and Logic," Section IV (pp. 23-35).
Week 9 Materials:
Bob's Handout for Meeting 9: Semantics II
Dan Kaplan's Notes for Meeting 9: Semantics II
Bob's Notes for Meeting 9: Semantics II
Video of Meeting 9: Semantics II
Audio of Meeting 9: Semantics II
Supplementary Material:
Bimodal Conceptual Realism and Intrinsic Conceptual Role Semantics:
Week 10 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 10: Bimodal Conceptual Realism and Intrinsic Conceptual Role Semantics
Bob's Notes for Meeting 10: Bimodal Conceptual Realism and Intrinsic Conceptual Role Semantics
Video of Meeting 10: Bimodal Conceptual Realism and Intrinsic Conceptual Role Semantics
Audio of Meeting 10: Bimodal Conceptual Realism and Intrinsic Conceptual Role Semantics
Metalinguistic Expressivism I:
Beyond Semantic and Pragmatic Metavocabularies
• Read Brandom, Between Saying and Doing, Chapter One.
• Read Brandom, "On the Way to a Pragmatist Theory of the Categories"
Week 10 Materials:
[This session turned into a ghost over Halloween, and was absorbed back into Geist.
It is immaterial. See the New and Improved Week 10.]
Supplementary Material:
Metalinguistic Expressivism:
Alethic Modal Metavocabularies
• Read Brandom, "Modality and Normativity: From Hume and Quine to Kant and Sellars"
• Read Brandom, "Modal Expressivism and Modal Realism: Together Again"
(These are Chapters 4 and 5 of From Empiricism to Expressivism: Brandom Reads Sellars.)
Week 11 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 11: Alethic Modal Vocabulary
Bob's Notes for Meeting 11: Alethic Modal Vocabulary
Video of Meeting 11: Alethic Modal Vocabulary
Audio of Meeting 11: Alethic Modal Vocabulary
Representation, Description, and Fact Stating:
Alethic and Deontic Metavocabularies Entangled
Covariant Tracking and Normative Governance
Week 12 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 12: Representation and Description
Bob's Notes for Meeting 12: Representation and Description
Video of Meeting 12: Representation and Description
Audio of Meeting 12: Representation and Description
Thanksgiving Holiday Break
Ongoing Projects:
Dialogic Pragmatics and Monadologics
Week 13 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 13: Ongoing Projects: Dialogic Pragmatics and Monadologics
Bob's Notes for Meeting 13: Ongoing Projects: Dialogic Pragmatics and Monadologics
Video of Meeting 13: Ongoing Projects: Dialogic Pragmatics and Monadologics
Audio of Meeting 13: Ongoing Projects: Dialogic Pragmatics and Monadologic
User-friendly front end for DP1 Python program: dp_inquiry.py
Basic Python DP1 program: dpmain.py
Conclusion:
Discursive Metarationalism
Week 14 Materials:
Handout for Meeting 14: Conclusion: Discursive Metarationalism
Video of Meeting 14: Conclusion: Discursive Metarationalism
Audio of Meeting 14: Conclusion: Discursive Metarationalism
