Assertion and its Constitutive Norms

Abstract

Alston, Searle, and Williamson advocatethe restrictive model of assertion, according to which certain constitutive assertoric normsrestrictwhich propositions one may assert. Sellars and Brandom advocatethe dialectical model of assertion, which treats assertion as constituted by its role in the game of giving and asking for reasons. Sellars and Brandom develop a restrictive version of the dialectical model. I explore anon‐restrictiveversion of the dialectical model. On such a view, constitutive assertoric norms constrain how one must react if an interlocutor challenges one’s assertion, but they donotconstrain what one should assert in the first place. I argue that the non‐restrictive dialectical perspective can accommodate various linguistic phenomena commonly taken to support the restrictive model. 1