PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Offered Spring 2001
MW9:30-10:45 AM
210 Kaplan

Required Texts

Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (Dover) Moore, Meaning and Reference (Oxford University Press) Ostertag, Definite Descriptions: A Reader (MIT Press)

Assignments

Wednesday, January 17th:	Course structure. Historical background to the philosophy of language.
Monday, January 22nd:	Ayer, Chs 1 - 2
Wednesday, January 24th:	Ayer, Chs 3 - 4
Monday, January 29th:	Ayer, Ch 6
Wednesday, January 31st:	Russell, “On Denoting” (Ostertag, Ch 1); Ostertag, Introduction, §§I-III (§II optional);
Monday, February 5th:	Russell, “Descriptions” (Ostertag, Ch 3; also in Moore);
Wednesday, February 7th - Monday February 12th:	Strawson, “On Referring” (Ostertag, Ch 6; also in Moore));
Wednesday, February 14th:	Donnellan, “Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Ch 8); Ostertag, Introduction, §IV;
Monday, February 19th:	President's Day; no class
Monday, February 21st:	Donnellan, continued
Monday, February 22nd - Wednesday February 24th:	Grice, “Vacuous Names” (Ostertag, Ch 7), Kripke, “Speaker’s Reference and Semantic Reference” (Ostertag, Ch 11);
Monday, March 5th - Wednesday March 7th:	Wettstein, “Demonstrative Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Ch 12); Neale, “Context and Communication” (Ostertag, Ch 14); Ostertag, Introduction, §§ V-VI;
Monday, March 14th, - Wednesday, March 16th:	Spring Break;
Monday, March 19th:	Frege, “On Sense and Meaning” (in Moore).
Wednesday, March 21st - Monday, March 26th:	Kripke, “Identity and Necessity” (in Moore);
Wednesday, March 28th:	Evans, “The Causal Theory of Names” (in Moore)
Monday, April 2nd:	Crimmins and Perry, “The Prince and the Phone Booth” (on reserve)
Wednesday, April 4th:	Schiffer, “Descriptions, Indexicals and Belief Reports…” (Ostertag, Ch 15).
Monday, April 9th:	Saul, “The Pragmatics of Attitude Ascription” (reserve).
Wednesday, April 11th - Monday, April 16th:	Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (reserve); “Mind and Verbal Dispositions” (in Moore)
Monday, April 18th:	Putnam, “Is Semantics Possible?” (reserve)
Monday, April 23rd:	Davidson, “Truth and Meaning”; Frege, “Letter to Jourdain” (both are in Moore).
Wednesday, April 25th - Monday, April 30th:	Davidson, “Reply to Foster”; Evans, “Semantic Theory and Tacit Knowledge” (both items on reserve)

Course Description

The course provides an introduction to Analytical Philosophy of Language by focusing on a number of fundamental topics: Russell's theory of descriptions; the semantics of belief reports; the theory of reference; skepticism about meaning; and (time permitting) the idea that a theory of truth can serve as a theory of meaning.

Evaluation

Evaluation will be based upon three papers (25% each) and a final examination (25%)