Acknowledgements

The composition of this book took a long path that started much earlier than the time when I actually began to write it. During this period I benefited from the help and support of many people, who I am greatly indebted to. Much of the credit for anything good in this work goes to them, in many senses. All the mistakes instead are of course my own. I am immensely grateful to Carlo Marletti, who several years ago entrusted me and my modest means with the analysis of Making it Explicit for the topic of my graduation thesis. Carlo has been watching over my steps in philosophy, first as a student and then as a teacher, since then. I want to thank the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa that sponsored my PhD and the period that I spent as a visiting student at the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 and 2009. There is where I met Robert Brandom. Words fail to express my gratitude towards him. Bob patiently and generously took the time to engage me in the analysis of his work and to discuss my puzzlements. He taught me what philosophical research is really about: I tried to learn the best I could. He also enrolled me in a seminar on Incompatibility Semantics that he was running at the time. I want to thank all the participants to that seminar, in particular Alp Aker, Kohei Kishida and Shawn Standefer, who gave me the opportunity to begin to really think about the ideas of Chapters 4 and 5. I also want to thank for their precious suggestions and objections all the participants to the Amsterdam Graduate Philosophy Conference in 2010, the Prague International Colloquium, Normativity of Meaning: Sellarsian Perspectives and the 4Th Cambridge Graduate Conference on the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics in 2011, the Sellars Centenary Workshop in Dublin in 2012 and the III Madrid Workshop on New Trends in the Philosophy of Social Science in 2013. Special thanks go to my students who have been my most demanding teachers. This enterprise would not have brought to a successful conclusion without Anita Fetzer who, as the editor of the Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, kindly led me through the process of publication. I also thank Isja Conen at Benjamins for her assistance and two anonymous referees for their precious criticisms and remarks. Throughout all this time I was lucky enough to have Ilaria encouraging, advising and taking care of me. Her presence is invaluable to me. Lastly, I want to thank my parents, without whom nothing of this would have been possible in so many ways. Their love and support has always meant the most to me. This book is for them.