Between saying and doing : towards an analytic pragmatism

• Main Author: Brandom, Robert B
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 2008; Oxford University Press, Incorporated
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Analysis (Philosophy); Epistemology; Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Mind; Pragmatism; vocabulary; empiricism; meaning; use; pragmatism; analytic philosophy; naturalism; semantics; logic; pragmatics
• ISBN: 0199542872; 9780199542871
• DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542871.001.0001

This book aims to reconcile pragmatism (in both its classical American and its Wittgensteinian forms) with analytic philosophy. It investigates 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 of 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 classical 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.