ABSTRACT
I have recently completed the bracing – and long overdue – experience of reading Making It Explicit, and trying to superimpose my own views on it to see where the disagreements stand out. Mainly, there is agreement. Claim after claim, page after page, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Brandom, and this is not just on matters about which philosophers in general agree. Brandom and I are on the same page about many issues that divide the profession. Moreover, on a few points where Brandom explicitly objects to positions I have maintained, I think he is, in the main, right, and I will acknowledge this in more detail below. What then is left to argue about? There is a fundamental difference of direction in our work. But I will try to show that our residual disagreements – which at first make us appear poles apart on some very central theses – might quite easily be nudged into consonance if Brandom can take on what I view as a few friendly amendments.
