This page includes a calendar of lecture topics.
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Prerequisite
No knowledge of logic or linguistics is presupposed. One philosophy subject is the only prerequisite.
Overview
We will cover these major topics:
- Sense and Reference, Names and Descriptions
- Pragmatics
- Propositional Attitudes
- Truth
- Rule Following
Texts
Martinich, Aloysius P., ed. The Philosophy of Language. 4th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0195135431.
Kripke, Saul. Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN: 0674598466.
Assignments
There are four assessments for this course: one comprehension exercise (due in week four); one short critical note (due in week eight); and two short papers (due in week twelve and week fifteen).
Grading
| ASSIGNMENTS | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Assignment One, Comprehension Exercise | 10% |
| Assignment Two, Critical Note | 10% |
| Assignment Three, Short Paper | 40% |
| Assignment Four, Short Paper | 40% |
Calendar
| WEEK # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Section One: Sense and Reference, Names and Descriptions | ||
| 1 | Frege: On Sense and Nominatum | |
| 2 | Russell: On Denoting Russell: Descriptions |
|
| 3 | Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism | |
| 4-5 | Kripke: Naming and Necessity Putnam: Meaning and Reference |
Assignment one due in week #4 |
| 6 | Strawson: On Referring Donnellan: Reference and Definite Descriptions Kripke: Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference |
|
| 7 | von Fintel: Would you believe it? The King of France is Back! Yablo: Non-Catastropic Presupposition Failure Perry: Problem of the Essential Indexical Lewis: Attitudes De Dicto and De Se |
|
| Section Two: Pragmatics | ||
| 8 | Austin: Performative Utterances Grice: Logic and Conversation |
Assignment two due |
| 9 | Lewis: Scorekeeping in a Language Game Langton: Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts Langton and West: Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game |
|
| 10 | Lewis: Languages and Language | |
| Section Three: Propositional Attitudes | ||
| 11 | Frege: On Sense and Nominatum Davidson: On Saying That |
|
| 12 | Kripke: A Puzzle About Belief Salmon: How to Become a Millian Heir |
Assignment three due |
| 13 | Crimmins and Perry: The Prince and the Phone Booth Saul: Substitution and Simple Sentences |
|
| Section Four: Truth | ||
| 14 | Frege: On Sense and Nominatum Tarski: The Semantic Conception of Truth, and the Foundations of Semantics Stoljar: The Deflationary Theory of Truth |
|
| Section Five: Rule Following | ||
| 15 | Kripke: On Rules and Private Language Millikan: Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox Holton: Meaning and Rule Following |
Assignment four due |