Making it Explicit

Robert B. Brandom's book Making It Explicit covered and extended a vast range of topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language—the very core of analytic philosophy. This new work provides an approachable introduction to the complex system that Making It Explicit mapped out. Articulating Reasons offers an easy entry into two of Brandom's main themes: the idea that the semantic content of a sentence is determined by the norms governing inferences to and from it, and the idea that the distinctive function of logical vocabulary is to let us make our tacit inferential commitments explicit. A tour of the earlier book's large ideas and relevant details, Articulating Reasons puts Brandom's work within reach of nonphilosophers who want to understand the state of the foundations of semantics. "Displaying a sovereign command of the intricate discussion in the analytic philosophy of language, Brandom manages successfully to carry out a program within the philosophy of language that has already been sketched by others, without losing sight of the vision inspiring the enterprise in the important details of his investigation…Using the tools of a complex theory of language, Brandom succeeds in describing convincingly the practices in which the reason and autonomy of subjects capable of speech and action are expressed." —Jürgen Habermas Robert B. Brandom is Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind and Making It Explicit (both from Harvard).