Wednesday, Jan 21st: |
Course structure. Overview of topics to be treated in course. |
Monday, Jan 26th: |
Ayer, Chapters 1 and 2 |
Wednesday, Jan 28th: |
Ayer, Introduction (pages 10-14), Chapters 3 and 4; David Lewis, “Ayer’s First Empiricist Criterion of Meaning: Why Does it Fail?” (handout). |
Monday,
Feb 2nd- |
Ayer, Chapter 6, and Stevensen, “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms” (handout); |
Monday,
Feb 9th- |
Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” (this essay is in both the Stainton and the Richard volumes). |
Monday, Feb 16th: |
Presidents' Day |
Wednesday, Feb 18th: |
Davidson, “Truth and Meaning” (in Stainton). |
Monday, Feb 23rd: |
Davidson, “Radical Interpretation” (in Richard). |
Wednesday, Feb 25th: |
Grice, “Meaning” (in Stainton). |
Monday,
March 1st - |
Austin, “Performative Utterances”; Searle, “Meaning and Speech Acts” (both articles in Stainton). |
Monday,
March 8th- |
Horwich, “Meaning”, (in Richard). |
Monday,
March 15th- |
Spring Recess. |
Monday,
March 22nd- |
Russell, “On Denoting” (Ostertag, Chapter 1); Russell, “Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter 3); Ostertag, Introduction, §§I-III (§II optional). |
Monday,
March 29th- |
Strawson, “On Referring” (Ostertag, Chapter 6) |
Wednesday, March 31st: |
Ramachandran, “A Strawsonian Objection to Russell's Theory of Descriptions” (Handout) |
Monday, April 5th: |
Donnellan, “Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter 8); Ostertag, Introduction, §IV |
Wednesday, April 7th: |
Wettstein, “Demonstrative Reference and Definite Descriptions” (Ostertag, Chapter 12). |
Monday,
April 12th- |
Neale, “Context and Communication” (Ostertag, Chapter 14); Ostertag, Introduction, §§ V-VI; Grice, “Logic and Conversation” (in Stainton); Devitt, “Meanings and Psychology” (excerpt). |
Wednesday, April 21st: |
Frege, “Uber Sinn und Bedeutung” (in Stainton); appears in the same translation as “On Sense and Reference” in Richard. |
Monday,
April 26th - |
Kripke, “Naming and Necessity” (in Richard). |
Monday, May 3rd: |
Putnam, “Is Semantics Possible?”; Wilson, “Predicate meets Property” (both in Richard). |
Wednesday, May 5th: |
Final Exam, 6 PM-7:50 PM |