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The nature of meaning: Brandom versus Chomsky

Abstract

Part of the philosophy of language of the 20th century is marked by a shift from a conception of language as a tool of representing the world to a conception of it as a means of interacting with the world. This shift is common to the later Wittgenstein, to pragmatists and neopragmatists including Brandom, and also to Chomsky and his school. The claim of the paper is that though the Chomskyans have offered an admirably elaborated theory of syntax adequate to the interactive view of language, they failed to develop a comparably adequate notion of semantics; and that it is Brandom‘s approach which, though prima facie much more speculative and much less scientific, paves the way to a semantic theory which an ‘interactivist’ should endorse.

Abstract

Part of the philosophy of language of the 20th century is marked by a shift from a conception of language as a tool of representing the world to a conception of it as a means of interacting with the world. This shift is common to the later Wittgenstein, to pragmatists and neopragmatists including Brandom, and also to Chomsky and his school. The claim of the paper is that though the Chomskyans have offered an admirably elaborated theory of syntax adequate to the interactive view of language, they failed to develop a comparably adequate notion of semantics; and that it is Brandom‘s approach which, though prima facie much more speculative and much less scientific, paves the way to a semantic theory which an ‘interactivist’ should endorse.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. About the Authors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Formal truth and objective reference in an inferentialist setting 7
  6. The nature of meaning: Brandom versus Chomsky 35
  7. The father, the son, and the daughter: Sellars, Brandom, and Millikan 53
  8. A deflationist theory of intentionality? Brandom's analysis of de re specifying attitude-ascriptions 65
  9. Transcendental deduction of predicative structure in Kant and Brandom 83
  10. Meaning, justification, and truth 99
  11. Motivating inferentialism: Comments on Making it Explicit (Ch. 2) 109
  12. Pragmatics, Pittsburgh style 127
  13. Brandom's solution of the objectivity problem 147
  14. Keeping track of individuals: Brandom's analysis of Kripke's puzzle and the content of belief 163
  15. Scorekeeping in a defective language game 187
  16. Response 209
  17. Index of persons 231
  18. Index of topics 233
The Pragmatics of <i>Making it Explicit</i>
This chapter is in the book The Pragmatics of <i>Making it Explicit</i>
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.15.04per

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. About the Authors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Formal truth and objective reference in an inferentialist setting 7
  6. The nature of meaning: Brandom versus Chomsky 35
  7. The father, the son, and the daughter: Sellars, Brandom, and Millikan 53
  8. A deflationist theory of intentionality? Brandom's analysis of de re specifying attitude-ascriptions 65
  9. Transcendental deduction of predicative structure in Kant and Brandom 83
  10. Meaning, justification, and truth 99
  11. Motivating inferentialism: Comments on Making it Explicit (Ch. 2) 109
  12. Pragmatics, Pittsburgh style 127
  13. Brandom's solution of the objectivity problem 147
  14. Keeping track of individuals: Brandom's analysis of Kripke's puzzle and the content of belief 163
  15. Scorekeeping in a defective language game 187
  16. Response 209
  17. Index of persons 231
  18. Index of topics 233
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