Inferentialism in mathematics education: introduction to a special issue

Inferentialism, as developed by the philosopher Robert Brandom (1994, 2000), is a theory of meaning. The theory has wide-ranging implications in various fields but this special issue concentrates on the use and content of concepts. The key idea, relevant to mathematics education research, is that the meaning of concepts is understood in terms of their role in reasoning practices. In line with the anti-representationalist literature in mathematics education (e.g., Cobb et al. 1992), Brandom explains the meaning of representations in terms of reasoning practices rather than the possibility of reasoning or making inferences on the basis of representations. This view does by no means diminish the significance of representations (signs, diagrams, graphs, symbols…). Rather, understanding how representations come to be is enriched by appreciating that they gain their meaning in human activities in which, as a matter of course, people exercise reason that relies on particular inferences.