Editing Inferential role semantics

{{Short description|Context-based approach to semantics}}
'''Inferential role semantics''' (also '''conceptual role semantics''', '''functional role semantics''', '''procedural semantics''', '''semantic inferentialism''') is an approach to the theory of meaning that identifies the meaning of an expression with its relationship to other expressions (typically its [[Inference|inferential]] relations with other expressions), in contradistinction to '''denotationalism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->, according to which [[denotation]]s are the primary sort of meaning.<ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/proof-theoretic-semantics/ Proof-Theoretic Semantics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]</ref>

==Overview==
[[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] is considered an early proponent of what is now called inferentialism.<ref>Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, ''[[Science of Logic|Wissenschaft der Logik]]'' Vol. II, Meiner, 1975 [1932], pp. 466 and 474.</ref><ref name=PSW>P. Stekeler-Weithofer (2016), [https://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/files/2012/11/StekelerHegelsAnalyticPragmatism.pdf "Hegel's Analytic Pragmatism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103050351/https://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/files/2012/11/StekelerHegelsAnalyticPragmatism.pdf |date=2020-11-03 }}, University of Leipzig, pp. 122–4.</ref> He believed that the ground for the axioms and the foundation for the validity of the inferences are the right consequences and that the axioms do not explain the consequence.<ref name=PSW/> 

In its current form, inferential role semantics originated in the work of [[Wilfrid Sellars]].

Contemporary proponents of semantic inferentialism include [[Robert Brandom]],<ref>[http://johnmacfarlane.net/pragmatism-inferentialism.pdf "Pragmatism and Inferentialism"]</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Brandom | first = Robert | title = Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 2000 | pages = 230 | isbn = 0-674-00158-3}}</ref> [[Gilbert Harman]],<ref>[http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/concepts/NonSolips.html "(Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics" by Gilbert Harman]</ref> [[Paul Horwich]], [[Ned Block]],<ref>[http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/ConceptualRoleSemantics.html "Conceptual Role Semantics" by Ned Block]</ref> and [[Luca Incurvati]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://inferentialexpressivism.com|title=EXPRESS {{!}} From the Expression of Disagreement to New Foundations for Expressivist Semantics|website=Inferential Expressivism project website|quote=A project funded by the European Research Council}}</ref>

[[Jerry Fodor]] coined the term "inferential role semantics" in order to criticise it as a holistic (i.e. essentially non-compositional) approach to the theory of meaning. Inferential role semantics is sometimes contrasted to [[truth-conditional semantics]]. 

Semantic inferentialism is related to [[logical expressivism]]<ref>J. Peregrin, ''Inferentialism: Why Rules Matter'', Springer, 2014, ch. 10.</ref> and [[Semantic anti-realism (epistemology)|semantic anti-realism]].<ref> R. Ramanujam, Sundar Sarukkai (eds.), ''Logic and Its Applications'', Springer, 2009, p. 260.</ref> The approach also bears a resemblance to accounts of [[proof-theoretic semantics]] in the [[Formal semantics (logic)|semantics of logic]], which associate meaning with the reasoning process.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite IEP |url-id=conc-rol |title=Conceptual Role Semantics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inferential Role Semantics}}
[[Category:Theories of deduction]]
[[Category:Theories of language]]
[[Category:Semantics]]
[[Category:Philosophy of language]]


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