David Corfield inferentialism

Precursors to Brandom

Wittgenstein (Ambrose, 1979, pp. 19-20):

Some people say that the question, ‘‘How can one know such a thing?,’’ is irrelevant to the question, ‘‘What is the meaning?’’ But an answer gives the meaning by showing the relation of the proposition to other propositions. That is, it shows what it follows from and what follows from it. It gives the grammar of the proposition, which is what the question, ‘‘What would it be like for it to be true?,’’ asks for.

Ambrose, A. (Ed.). (1979). Wittgenstein’s lectures, Cambridge 1932–1935. From the notes of Alice Ambrose and Margaret Macdonald. Amherst (NY): Prometheus Books

If semantic holism, how do we understand one another?

one could think of understanding rather on the model of a cooperative practice or activity. In particular, I can be said to understand your remark insofar as I can compute its inferential significance both for you and for me, and navigate successfully back and forth across the two perspectives on its content constituted by the background of auxiliary hypotheses drawn from your collateral commitments and the ones drawn from mine. p. 667

Brandom, R. 2007. Inferentialism and Some of Its Challenges, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research Vol. LXXIV No. 3, May 2007, pp. 651-676.

Sounds like adjoint logic. Also sounds like Alasdair MacIntyre.

The “emptiest of all representations,” the “‘I think’ that can accompany all representations” expresses the formal dimension of responsibility for judgments. p. 160, Articulating reasons

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