This paper shows that our epistemological career starts at any rate earlier than Robert Brandom´s theory of inferential reason suggests. So we need a theory of informal ways of getting knowledge in the tradition of Leibniz. To do justice to the intended fragile initial oscillations of primary understanding of a meaningful world we must go back to areas before hermeneutics starts and take recourse to the repertoire of mantic vocabulary.
Keywords: mantics · hermeneutics · semantics · Gadamer · Frege
Wolfram Hogrebe — prof. dr, professor of theoretical philosophy at Bonn University. Research interests: history of philosophy, theory of knowledge, philosophy of language, metaphisics, hermeneutics, philosophy of culture. Main works: Kant und das Problem einer transzendentalen Semantik, 1974; Archäologische Bedeutungspostulate, 1977; Deutsche Philosophie im XIX. Jahrhundert, 1987; Prädikation und Genesis, 1989; Metaphysik und Mantik, 1992; Ahnung und Erkenntnis, 1996; Echo des Nichtwissens, 2006; Wirklichkeit des Denkens, 2007; Riskante Lebensnähe. Die szenische Existenz des Menschen, 2009. Member of Advisory Board of the „Archive of History of Philosophy and Social Thought”.
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