Robert Brandom
contemporaryAnalytic Philosophy (Pittsburgh School, Inferentialism, Analytic Pragmatism)b. 1950
Robert Brandom is an American analytic philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh known for his inferentialist theory of meaning and his systematic reading of Hegel. Building on Wilfrid Sellars and Richard Rorty, he argues that conceptual content is constituted by the normative practices of giving and asking for reasons.
Notable Achievements
1
Developed inferentialism, grounding semantic content in inferential role rather than representation
2
Authored 'Making It Explicit' (1994), a landmark systematic account of linguistic normativity
3
Wrote 'A Spirit of Trust' (2019), a major inferentialist reading of Hegel's Phenomenology
4
Advanced the normative pragmatics of 'giving and asking for reasons' as the core of rationality
5
Extended Sellarsian and neo-pragmatist thought into a comprehensive analytic pragmatism