Toward an Analytic-Pragmatist Account of Folk Psychology?

In this paper we want to establish two points of interest to Brandom’s project of analytic pragmatism. First, we aim to show how, in light of this project, Brandom’s deontic scorekeeping model can be used as a valuable descriptive tool for characterizing folk psychological interpretation, and how this reveals certain problematic assumptions underlying dominant positions in the debate on folk psychology. Second, we will consider the relevance of empirical study of folk-psychological practice to Brandom’s project of analytic pragmatism: to what extent should pragmatic analyses of the sort Brandom proposes be subject to empirical research on what people actually say in the practice of giving and asking for reasons?