inferentialism

Inferentialism is a family of philosophical theories about the meaning of linguistic expressions that locates semantic content in the inferential roles expressions play within a language. The central claim is that the meaning of a term is constituted by the inferences it licenses and by the commitments and entitlements that speakers incur when using it. The most influential advocate is Robert Brandom, building on Wilfrid Sellars's idea that understanding language is a matter of mastering a network of justification and inferential relations within a linguistic community.

According to inferentialism, to know what a sentence means is to know which inferences follow from it, which ones would undermine it, and what reasons a speaker is committed to provide or withhold. Meaning is thus embedded in social practices of assertion, explanation, and critique rather than reducible to reference or truth conditions. Statements are evaluated by how well they fit into a web of inferential commitments; negotiation of meaning occurs through communicative justification and entitlement to draw certain conclusions.

Inferentialism contrasts with traditional referential or truth-conditional theories by its emphasis on normative, social aspects of meaning. It has been extended beyond language to areas such as epistemology and the philosophy of mind, and has faced criticisms about the operationalization of inferential roles, potential circularity, and the dependence on a shared community of practices. Nonetheless, it remains influential in discussions of linguistic meaning, justification, and the nature of propositional content.