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PHILOSOPHY OF
LANGUAGE
Offered Spring 2003
Course Code: V83.0085-001
MW4:55 - 6:10 PM
Room: 208 Silver Center
Instructor: Gary Ostertag
Office hours: M3:30-4:30 and by appointment
TA: Ray Buchanan
Office hours: TBA and by appointment
Site Contents:
Required Texts back to top
Optional Texts
Assignments back to top
Wednesday,
Jan. 22nd: |
Course structure. Historical background to the philosophy of language. |
Monday,
Jan. 27th: |
Ayer, Chapters 1 - 2
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Wednesday,
Jan. 29th: |
Ayer, Chapters 3 - 4, Cpater 5, pp. 87 - 90.
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Monday,
Feb. 3rd: |
Ayer, Chapter 6; Stevensen, “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms” (handout)
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Wednesday,
Feb. 5th:: |
Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (in Stainton). |
Monday,
Feb. 10th: |
Davidson, “Truth and Meaning” (in Stainton). |
Wednesday,
Feb. 12th: |
Grice, “Meaning” (in Stainton). |
Monday,
Feb. 17th: |
Presidents' Day. |
Wednesday,
Feb. 19th -
Monday, Feb, 24th: |
Austin, “Performative Utterances”; Searle, “Meaning and Speech Acts” (both articles in Stainton).
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Wednesday,
Feb. 26th: |
Brandom, Chapter Two, Articulating Reasons, “Semantic Inferentialism and Logical Expressivism”. |
Monday,
March 3rd: |
Brandom, continued. First paper due. |
Wednesday,
March 5th -
Monday, March 10th: |
Russell, “On Denoting” (Ostertag, Chapter 1); Russell, “Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter 3); Ostertag, Introduction, §§I-III (§II optional).
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Wednesday, March 12th: |
Strawson, “On Referring” (Ostertag, Chapter 6)
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Monday,
March 17th -
Wednesday March 19th: |
Spring Break.
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Monday, March 24th: |
Donnellan, “Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter 8); Ostertag, Introduction, §IV
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Wednesday March 26th: |
Wettstein, “Demonstrative Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter12)
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Monday,
March 31st: |
Grice, “Logic and Conversation” (in Stainton)
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Wednesday,
April 2nd -
Monday, April 7th: |
Neale, “Context and Communication” (Ostertag, Chapter14); Ostertag, Introduction, §§ V-VI; Devitt, “Meanings and Psychology” (excerpt).
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Wednesday,
April 9th: |
Recanati, “The Pragmatics of What is Said”.
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Monday,
April 14th: |
Frege, “Uber Sinn und Bedeutung” (in Stainton).
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Wednesday,
Aprth 16th-
Wednesday, April 23rd: |
Kripke, Naming and Necessity (excerpts TBA)
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Monday,
April 28th: |
Soames, “Wide Scope and Rigidified Descriptions”.
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Wednesday,
April 30th -
Monday, May 5th: |
Brandom, Chapter Four, Articulating Reasons, “What are Singular Terms, and Why are there Any?” |
Course Description
The course provides an introduction to analytical philosophy of language by focusing on a number of fundamental topics: the nature of linguistic meaning; Russell's theory of descriptions; the theory of reference; logical vs. grammatical form; the theory of speech acts; in what way and to what degree context affects the content of an utterance.
Evaluation
Evaluation will be based upon three or four short papers and a final examination
Bobst Reference Resources back to top
Reserve Books back to top
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Osherson,
An Invitation To Cognitive Science, v. 1: LANGUAGE (MIT Press)
Kripke,
Naming and Necessity (Harvard University Press)
Brandom,
Articulating Reasons (Harvard University Press)
Récanati,
Direct Reference (Blackwell)
Soames,
Beyond Rigidity (Oxford University Press)
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On-Line Resources back to top
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