Between Saying and Doing: Towards an Analytic Pragmatism

by Robert B. Brandom

Overview

Between Saying and Doing aims to reconcile pragmatism (in both its classical American and its Wittgensteinian forms) with analytic philosophy. It investigates the relations between the meaning of linguistic expressions and their use. Giving due weight both to what one has to do in order to count as saying various things and to what one needs to say in order to specify those doings, makes it possible to shed new light on the relations between semantics (the theory of the meanings ‘f utterances and the contents of thoughts) and pragmatics (the theory of the functional relations among meaningful or contentful items). Among the vocabularies whose interrelated use and meaning are considered are: logical, indexical, modal, normative, and intentional vocabulary. As the argument proceeds, new ways of thinking about the classic analytic core programs of empiricism, naturalism, and functionalism are offered, as well as novel insights about the ideas of artificial intelligence, the nature of logic, and intentional relations between subjects and objects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199542871
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Brandom is Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, a fellow of the Center for the Philosophy of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His interests centre on philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of logic. He has published more than 50 articles on these and related areas.

Table of Contents

Lecture One: Extending the Project of AnalysisLecture Two: Elaborating Abilities: The Expressive Role of LogicAppendix to Lecture TwoLecture Three: Artificial Intelligence and Analytic PragmatismLecture Four: Modality and Normativity: From Hume and Quine to Kant and SellarsLecture Five: Incompatibility, Modal Semantics, and Intrinsic LogicAppendix to Lecture FiveLecture Six: Intentionality as a Pragmatically Mediated Semantic RelationAfterword

Editorial Reviews

"Between Saying and Doing is an enriching, enlivening book. This is the work of a generous philosopher at the height of his powers stretching readers to the height of theirs."—Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher