Syllabus

Course Description and Overview:

If there is one unifying theme for twentieth-century philosophy, it is the study of language. Some philosophers believed that all philosophical questions arise from misuses of language. Others believed that clarifying our uses of language can lead us to solutions to perennial philosophical questions, like the mind and body problem, or whether God exists. Still others explored the nature of language and its uses for its own sake. The profound developments in logic in the twentieth century were concomitant with this focus on language.

We will start by looking briefly at some pre-twentieth-century views of language and Frege's seminal work on language in the late nineteenth century, especially his distinction between sense and reference. The second part of the course, roughly the first half of the term, will focus on the nature of reference: How do words hook on to the world? The third part of the course, roughly the second half of the term, will focus on the nature of meaning: How does language get its content? At the end of the term, we will look briefly at linguistic ontology. Along the way, we will read some of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, including Russell, Wittgenstein, Tarski, Hempel, Strawson, Grice, Quine, Putnam, Chomsky, and Kripke.

Texts

Required readings are listed below and available on the course website, as will be my class notes. There are many good secondary sources in philosophy of language. See the course bibliography, available on the website.

Class notes are here.

Other recommended sources are listed in the Course Bibliography.

Course Requirements

Your responsibilities in this course include the following, with their contributions to your grade calculation in parentheses:

                          Attendance and Participation
                          Readings
                          Two Précis (10%; 5% each)
                          In-Class Presentation (20%)
                          Two papers (45%; 20% for the first and 25% for the second)
                          Final Exam (25%)

Attendance: While there is no direct reward or penalty for attendance, I expect students to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned reading.

Précis: The two précis are on specific, assigned topics. The first topic is Frege's distinction between sense and reference. It is due on September 15. The second topic is some theme in David Rosenthal's lecture, "Translation and Understanding," on October 17 at 4pm. The second précis is due on October 20. Each précis is to be no more than 500 words. I expect you to have to work to say what you want to say in so few words.

Presentation: Each student is required to participate in one in-class presentation. Most presentations will be done in pairs, though there will be opportunities for solo presentations as well. You should prepare a ten-to-fifteen minute presentation. Given discussion, your time leading the class may vary from half a class period to a full class period. I will distribute more specific guidelines, as well as a sign-up sheet, in class. I welcome, indeed encourage, you to use your presentation topic as the theme for either your first or second paper.

Papers: Each student will write two short papers. The first paper, 4-6 pages on any theme from Part II of the course (Reference) is due on Thursday, October 6. The second paper, 5-8 pages on any topic in the material from Part III of the course (Meaning) is due on Tuesday, December 6. I will distribute more details about each paper in class.

Final Exam: The final exam will be given on Wednesday, December 14, 9am - noon. Preparatory questions will be posted on the website.

On Grades: Grades on assignments will be posted on Blackboard, along with a running total, which I call your grade calculation. Your grade calculation is a guide for me to use in assigning you a final grade. There are no rules binding how I translate your grade calculation, which will appear in Blackboard as a percentage, into a letter grade. In particular, the Hamilton College key for translating your letter grades into percentages, used for graduate school admissions, is not a tool for calculating your final grade. I welcome further discussion of the purposes and methods of grading, as well as my own grading policies.

The Hamilton College Honor Code will be strictly enforced.

Office Hours

My office hours for the Fall 2011, term are 10:30am - noon, Monday through Friday. My office is upstairs in 202 College Hill Road.

Schedule:

Note: The readings listed in each row are to be completed before class.

Part I: Before the Revolution

Class	Date	Topic	Readings for Class
1	August 25	Introduction: Plato and the Moderns	Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6 Selections from Plato’s “Sophist” Selections from Berkeley’s Principles Locke, “Of Words” Swift, “Getting Rid of Words”
2	August 30	Contrasting Non-Linguistic and Linguistic Responses to the Ontological Argument	Selections from Anselm, Gaunilo, Descartes, Caterus, Hume and Kant
3	September 1	Introduction: Two Nineteenth-Century Views	Meinong, “The Theory of Objects,” §1-§6 Mill, “Of Names”

Part II: Reference

Class	Date	Topic	Readings for Class	Presentation
4	September 6	Frege’s Projects	Martinich, Introduction to The Philosophy of Language Frege, from Preface to Begriffsschrift Frege, from Preface to Grundlagen
5	September 8	Fregean Intensionalism	Frege, “The Thought: A Logical Inquiry”
6	September 13	The Sense/Reference Distinction	Frege, “On Sense and Reference”	Matt and Diane
7	September 15 Précis 1 due	The Description Theory	Russell, “Descriptions”	Katie and Katie
8	September 20	Presupposition	Strawson, “On Referring”	Ben
9	September 22	The Attributive/Referential Distinction	Donnellan, “Reference and Definite Descriptionss”	Taylor
10	September 24	Direct Reference I	Kripke, from Naming and Necessity	Andrew
11	September 29	Direct Reference II	Kripke, from Naming and Necessity
12	October 4	Natural Kinds	Putnam, “Meaning and Reference”

Part III: Meaning

Class	Date	Topic	Readings for Class	Presentation
13	October 6 Paper #1 due	Logical Empiricism	Wittgenstein, from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ayer, “The Principle of Verification”
14	October 11	The Verification Theory	Hempel, “Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance: Problems and Changes”
Bonus	Monday October 17	David Rosenthal’s Lecture, “Translation and Understanding”
15	October 18	Meaning Holism I	Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”	John and Larkin
16	October 20 Précis 2 due	Meaning Holism II	Quine, “Ontological Relativity”	Erik and Matt
17	October 25	Meaning Holism III	Quine, “Ontological Relativity”
18	October 27	Meanings Skepticism I	Wittgenstein, “Meaning as Use” Wittgenstein, “On Private Language”	Jason and Julian
19	November 1	Meanings Skepticism II	Wittgenstein, from Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics Kripke, “On Rules and Private Languages”	Gretchen and Sarah S.
20	November 3	Meanings Skepticism III	Kripke, “On Rules and Private Languages”
21	November 8	Intention-Based Semantics I	Grice, “Meaning”	Frank and Mercy
22	November 10	Intention-Based Semantics II	Schiffer, from Meaning	Dan W. and Nick
23	November 15	Tarski’s Theory of Truth	Tarski, “The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics”	Sam
24	November 17	Truth Theories as Meaning Theories	Davidson, “Truth and Meaning”	Danny L.
25	November 29	The New Intensionalism	Katz, “Introduction” and “Sense”	Peter

Part IV: Linguistic Ontology

Class	Date	Topic	Readings for Class	Presentation
26	December 1	Conceptualism	Chomsky, “Language and Problems of Knowledge”	Sarah F.
27	December 6 Paper #2 due	Platonism	Katz, “The Unfinished Chomskyan Revolution”
28	December 8	Nominalism	Devitt, “Linguistics is Not Psychology”

Final Exam: Wednesday, December 14, 9am - Noon

The Language Revolution

Syllabus (pdf)

Class Notes

Assignments

Handouts

Readings

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Texts

Coure Requirements

Office Hours

Schedule

Syllabus