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Tanner Leighton

  • Graduate Student

My research develops irenic pragmatism — a methodologically conservative framework in the Rorty-Brandom-Price neo-pragmatist tradition — and applies it to foundational questions in the philosophy of technology and science. Using this approach, I diagnose entrenched disputes in the philosophy of AI, philosophy of language, and quantum foundations by separating shared practice-level commitments from further semantic or metaphysical overlays, and defend the adequacy of the resulting “core” pragmatist baseline. I develop a positive account of linguistic agency in large language models, analyze accountability gaps in real-world AI deployment, and articulate a practice-anchored core interpretation of quantum theory.