Review of Robert Brandom, Reason in Philosophy: Animating Ideas

Humans have a predictable liking for theories of what makes humans special, far above mere beasts and machines. Robert Brandom backs one of the most popular candidates, reason, in a specific form indicated by the word 'reasoning': making inferences, reaching conclusions from premises. Are we really the only reasoners? A dog traces its quarry to a place where it could have gone any of three ways, sniffs at two of them and rushes off along the third without sniffing. The Stoic Chrysippus interpreted the dog as reasoning 'It went this way, that way or the other way; it did not go this way or that way; therefore it went the other way'. Far more complex logic is routine for computers. Such examples would not convince Brandom. For him, they lack a normative dimension essential to genuine engagement with reasons. When humans make a judgment, we incur both a responsibility to provide our reasons if challenged and a commitment to endorse consequences of what we claimed or else withdraw the claim. Dogs and computers incur no such responsibilities or commitments. Brandom labels his view 'normative rationalism'. Distinguishing humans from others is just one of many achievements attributed to normative rationalism. Brandom is going for broke. In the first half of this short book, 'A