Zum Zeichenbegriff in Brandoms „Expressiver Vernunft“

Abstract

This is an article on Robert B. Brandom’s philosophical and linguistic pragmatism as expressed in his Making It Explicit asking whether it can be connected to linguistic semiotics thus contributing to more general semiotics. For this reason the essay shall elaborate on Brandom’s underlying but rather implicit communication model which – according to critics – consists of circular argumentation. The reproach of Brandom’s critics is that language can not be learned without a preset of mental concepts missing in Brandom’s inferentialism, which is merely based on proposition, assertion, reason and (non-mental) concept. Finally, this essay ends with the idea that a further step in theory is needed to analyse linguistic attributions of intentionality without attributing a propositional core at the same time.