Abstract
I outline Brandom’s theory of de re and de dicto belief ascriptions, which plays a central role in Brandom’s overall theory of linguistic communication, and show that this theory offers a surprising, new response to Burge’s (Midwest Stud 6:73–121, 1979) argument for social externalism. However, while this response is in principle available from the perspective of Brandom’s theory of belief ascription in abstraction from his wider theoretical enterprise, it ceases to be available from this perspective in the wider context of his inferential role semantics and his doctrines of scorekeeping and of the expressive role of belief ascriptions in discourse. In this wider context, Brandom’s theory of belief ascriptions implies that Burge’s argument trivially fails to have the disquieting implications for psychological explanations that it is widely taken to have. Yet since this is not trivially so, Brandom’s theory apparently provides a false picture of our practice of interpreting belief ascriptions. I then argue that Brandom might as well accept the alternative picture of interpreting belief ascriptions that Burge’s argument presupposes: even in the context of his overall project, Brandom’s take on our practice of interpreting them does not afford belief ascriptions with the discursive significance Brandom claims they have.
Highlights
I outline Brandom’s theory of de re and de dicto belief ascriptions, which plays a central role in Brandom’s overall theory of linguistic communication, and show that this theory offers a surprising, new response to Burge’s (Midwest Stud 6:73–121, 1979) argument for social externalism
Burge’s argument establishes externalism but straightforwardly fails to have the disquieting consequences for psychological explanations that it is widely taken to have. While this perspective is in principle available if we accept Brandom’s theory of belief ascriptions in isolation from the context of his larger theoretical enterprise—in particular, his holistic semantics and his theory of successful communication—it implies in this context that Burge’s argument trivially fails to have these disquieting seeming consequences
Since this is not trivially so, Brandom’s theory, in this context, is mistaken: it provides a false picture of our practice of interpreting belief ascriptions
Summary
I outline Brandom’s theory of de re and de dicto belief ascriptions, which plays a central role in Brandom’s overall theory of linguistic communication, and show that this theory offers a surprising, new response to Burge’s (Midwest Stud 6:73–121, 1979) argument for social externalism. Our ordinary interpretations of oblique occurrences of terms in de dicto ascriptions display the content of the beliefs ascribed as constituted by the very concepts that we take transparent occurrences of these terms to express, but do (cursive) per se not capture what we take to be the ascribee’s grasp of these concepts—not even if we know independently how the ascribee grasps these concepts.
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