Can Inferentialism Contribute to Social Epistemology?

A tension has been identified between the acquisition and participation metaphors for learning, and it is generally agreed that this tension has still not been adequately resolved. In this paper, we offer an alternative to the acquisition and participation metaphors for learning: the metaphor of mastering. Our claim is that the mastering metaphor, as grounded in inferentialism, allows one to treat both the acquisition and participation dimensions of learning as complementary and mutually constitutive. Inferentialism is a semantic theory which explains concept formation in terms of the inferences individuals make in the context of an intersubjective practice of acknowledging, attributing, and challenging one another's commitments. We first introduce the key concepts of inferentialism and consider the perspective on learning that inferentialism inspires. Then, we condense the lessons of the inferentialist concepts into a single mastering metaphor for learning and argue that learning consists in the process by which learners come to master concepts and practices. We conclude by discussing how the mastering metaphor could be put to work in a theoretical reconciliation of the cognitive and sociocultural dimensions of learning.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mastering as an Inferentialist Alternative to the Acquisition and Participation Metaphors for Learning

Taylor

Noorloos²,

Bakker³

2017

“…As a starting point, we discuss Jan Derry's recent attempt to make use of social epistemology in order to consider ‘knowledge (…) as a moment in human practice’ (Derry, , p. 224). In her approach, social epistemology derived from Brandom's neo‐pragmatic philosophy is combined with Vygotskyan social‐psychology.…”

Section: Relating Knowledge and Education By Social Epistemologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is this distinction of hermeneutics and epistemology which Brandom reinterprets as a distinction between semantics and epistemology, in order to mark his Wittgensteinian reverse understanding of knowledge through the lens of the knowledge formation process (Brandom, , p. 106). This approach is finally taken up by Derry in order to reconcile a philosophy of knowledg e as an epistemic justification of knowledge in individualistic terms with a sociology of knowledge as a semantic analysis of the social nature of knowledge (Derry, , p. 222). On the one hand, this is the main reason why Brandom's theory of knowledge could qualify as social epistemology ( cf .…”

Section: Relating Knowledge and Education By Social Epistemologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferentialism at Work: The Significance of Social Epistemology in Theorising Education

Su¹,

Bellmann²

2018

In connecting educational theory to a neo‐pragmatist social epistemology, we set out to understand education as knowledge practices that yield ‘the cultural world again’ by retelling culture or by making explicit what is implicit in culture. Recent trends in German educational studies towards holistic understanding of education demonstrate that such a holistic, non‐representationalist framework is deliberately placed outside the traditional procedure of merely applying knowledge gained in the so‐called foundational disciplines such as philosophy, sociology or psychology to the field of education. By constructively relating Brandom's non‐representational inferentialism to a re‐reading of Mollenhauer's distinction of the presentation and representation of culture in and through education, we try to show that Brandom's philosophy can also be used to point out an inferentialism that is already at work in educational theory. Together, this strengthens a social theoretic account of education that explores how to conceptualise the role of knowledge in educational processes in terms of a holistic epistemology.

“…The relevance of Brandom's inferentialism to philosophy of education has been investigated and illuminated by Derry ( and ). We agree with Derry's thesis that inferentialism plays—or should play—a pivotal role in this discipline.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Concept Possession as an Explicit and Social Practice

Marabini¹,

Moretti²

2017

We focus on issues of learning assessment from the point of view of an investigation of philosophical elements in teaching. We contend that assessment of concept possession at school based on ordinary multiple‐choice tests might be ineffective because it overlooks aspects of human rationality illuminated by Robert Brandom's inferentialism—the view that conceptual content largely coincides with the inferential role of linguistic expressions used in public discourse. More particularly, we argue that multiple‐choice tests at schools might fail to accurately assess the possession of a concept or the lack of it, for they only check the written outputs of the pupils who take them, without detecting the inferences actually endorsed or used by them. We suggest that school tests would acquire reliability if they enabled pupils to make the reasons of their answers or the inferences they use explicit, so as to contribute to what Brandom calls the game of giving and asking for reasons. We explore the possibility of putting this suggestion into practice by deploying two‐tier multiple‐choice tests.