Philosophy of Language (2018)
Philosophy of Language: Normative Pragmatism, Inferentialism, and Metalinguistic Expressivism
Syllabus
Some General Resources on Brandom's Philosophy of Language
Brandom's Dewey Lectures (Shanghai, 2018) "Inferentialism, Normative Pragmatism, and Metalinguistic Expressivism"
Week by Week Course Materials
Week 1: Introduction
Handout for Week 1
Week 1 Notes
"Intentionality and Language: A Normative, Pragmatist, Inferentialist Approach"
Introduction to
Articulating Reasons
Preface to
Making It Explicit
Audio Recording of Week 1, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 1, Part Two
Week 2: Normative Pragmatics and Analytic Pragmatism
Week 2 Notes
MIE
Chapter One: Toward a Normative Pragmatics
BSD
Chapter One: Extending the Project of Analysis
Audio Recording of Week 2, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 2, Part Two
Week 3: Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism
Week 3 Notes
Articulating Reasons
Chapter One: Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism
MIE
Chapter Two: Towards and Inferential Semantics
BSD
Chapter Two: Elaborating Abilities: The Expressive Role of Logic
Audio Recording of Week 3, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 3, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 3:
"Truth and Assertibility"
"From Logical Expressivism to Expressivist Logics"
"How Analytic Philosophy Has Failed Cognitive Science"
"Adequacy and the Individuation of Ideas in Spinoza's
Ethics
"
"Leibniz and Degrees of Perception"
"Reason, Expression, and Perspective: Three Leibnizian Master-Ideas, Then and Now"
Week 4: Pragmatics as Discursive Scorekeeping
Week 4 Notes
MIE
Chapter Three: Linguistic Practice and Discursive Commitment
BSD
Chapter Three: Artificial Intelligence and Analytic Pragmatism
"Conceptual Content and Discursive Practice"
Audio Recording of Week 4, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 4, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 4:
John MacFarlane's GOGAR
"Asserting"
"Fighting Skepticism with Skepticism"
Week 5: Perception and Action
Week 5 Notes
Articulating Reasons
Chapter Three: Insights and Blindspots of Reliabilism
Articulating Reasons
Chapter Two: Action, Norms, and Practical Reasoning
Making It Explicit
Chapter Four: Perception and Action
Audio Recording of Week 5, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 5, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 5:
Sellars: "Some Reflections on Language Games"
"The Centrality of Sellars's Two-Ply Account of Observation"
"Noninferential Knowledge, Secondary Qualities, and Perceptual Experience"
"What Do Expressions of Preference Express?"
Week 6: Deontic and Alethic Modal Vocabulary
Week 6 Handout
Week 6 Notes
Audio Recording of Week 6, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 6, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 6:
Analytic Pragmatism, Expressivism, and Modality
"Modal Expressivism and Modal Realism: Together, Again"
"On the Way to a Pragmatist Theory of the Categories"
"Modality and Normativity: From Hume and Quine to Kant and Sellars"
"Incompatibility, Modal Semantics, and Intrinsic Logic"
Week 7: Singular Terms and Subsentential Structure
Week 7 Handout 1
Week 7 Handout 2
Week 7 Notes
Articulating Reasons
Chapter Four: What Are Singular Terms, and Why Are There Any?
Making It Explicit
Chapter Six: Substitution
Audio Recording of Week 7, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 7, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 7:
"Singular Terms and Sentential Sign Designs"
van Fraassen "Quantification as an Act of Mind"
"Understanding the Object/Property Structure in Terms of Negation"
"The Significance of Complex Numbers for Frege's Philosophy of Mathematics"
Week 8: Anaphora and Token-Recurrence Structures
Week 8 Handout
Week 8 Notes
MIE
Chapter Five
MIE
Chapter Seven
Audio Recording of Week 8, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 8, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 8:
"Explanatory vs. Expressive Deflationism about Truth"
"Reference Explained Away"
Week 9: Ascriptions of Propositional Attitude:
De Dicto
and
De Re
Week 9 Handout
Week 9 Notes
Audio Recording of Week 9, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 9, Part Two
Supplementary Materials for Week 9:
"Hermeneutic Practices and Theories of Meaning"
Week 10: Proper Names, Indexicals, and Representation
Week 10 Handout
Week 10 Notes
Articulating Reasons
Chapter Six: Objectivity and the Normative Fine Structure of Rationality
Audio Recording of Week 10, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 10, Part Two
Week 11: Normativity, Modality, and Intentionality
Week 11 Notes
BSD
Chapter Six: Intentionality as a Pragmatically Mediated Semantic Relation
Audio Recording of Week 11, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 11, Part Two
Week 12: Discursive Practice and Semantic and Pragmatic Theory
Week 12 Notes
MIE
Chapter Nine: Conclusion
Audio Recording of Week 12, Part One
Audio Recording of Week 12, Part Two
Week 13: Conclusion
Week 13 Handout
Week 13 Notes
AR
Introduction
Review of Turbanti's
Robert Brandom's Normative Inferentialism
Tales of the Mighty Dead
Chapter One: Contexts
"Pre-Hegelian Stages in the Metaphysics of Normativity" ('Lost' chapter of
A Spirit of Trust
)
