Hegelian pragmatism in Brandom

Abstract

This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Robert Brandom's semantic pragmatism in the light of his interpretation of Hegelian philosophy in the book A Spirit of Trust. The first chapter focuses on the central concept of semantic pragmatism: semantic incompatibility. Additionally, the first chapter also addresses the bimodal nature of Brandom's semantic pragmatism. The second chapter discusses normative pragmatics based on three central concepts, the first being a Kantian conception, while the other two are Hegelian ideas: (1) normative intentionality; (2) recognition; (3) recollection. Finally, in the third chapter, the article analyzes whether the concept of "material incompatibility," which would be the equivalent of Hegel's concept of "determinate negation," is indeed a consistent reading in relation to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. A second point analyzed in the third chapter is to compare Brandom's purely functionalist approach to concepts with McDowell's approach, asserting that concepts have a function in relation to experience, while experience also has a function in relation to concepts.