This course will be an introduction to reading and writing philosophy through classic texts in Philosophy of Language, beginning with the first 10 pages of Frege’s discussion of der gedanke (“the thought”).
• Gottlob, Frege. 1918-1919. “The Thought: A Logical Inquiry” (Der Gedanke: Eine logische Untersuchung), in Beiträge zur Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus I:[29] 58–77.
While trying to understand the first ten pages of how thoughts connect to truth, we will look at selections from the work below and see how this work has impacted other disciplines, not only language.
• Austin, John .L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Hume, David. 1748. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. London: A. Millar.
Suggested Reading (original and/or secondary sources, to be provided)
• Grice, Paul. 1974. Logic and Conversation. Elsevier.
• Partee, Barbara. 1973. “Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in
English”, Vol. 70, No. 18, Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division, pp. 601-609.
• Hobbs, Jerry. 1979. “Coherence and coreference”. Cognitive Science 3: 67-90.
At the end of the fist 10 pages of “The Thought”, we will encounter discussion of proper names and indexicals. To make sense of these notions, we will read selections of Frege’s earlier article:
•Gottlob, Frege. 1892. “On sense and reference” (Über Sinn und Bedeutung), Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, vol. 100 (1892), pp. 25–50.
We will then read secondary sources from the two works below (originals encouraged to be read).
• Kripke, Saul. 1980. Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
• Kaplan, David. 1989. “Demonstratives: An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology of Demonstratives and other Indexicals”. In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.), Themes From Kaplan. Oxford University Press. pp. 481-563.
Advanced Reading
• Marcus, Ruth Barcan. 1961. “Modalities and Intensional Languages”, Synthese 13, 303-22.
• Gottlob, Frege. 1918-1919. “The Thought: A Logical Inquiry” (Der Gedanke: Eine logische Untersuchung), in Beiträge zur Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus I:[29] 58–77.
While trying to understand the first ten pages of how thoughts connect to truth, we will look at selections from the work below and see how this work has impacted other disciplines, not only language.
• Austin, John .L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Hume, David. 1748. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. London: A. Millar.
Suggested Reading (original and/or secondary sources, to be provided)
• Grice, Paul. 1974. Logic and Conversation. Elsevier.
• Partee, Barbara. 1973. “Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in
English”, Vol. 70, No. 18, Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division, pp. 601-609.
• Hobbs, Jerry. 1979. “Coherence and coreference”. Cognitive Science 3: 67-90.
At the end of the fist 10 pages of “The Thought”, we will encounter discussion of proper names and indexicals. To make sense of these notions, we will read selections of Frege’s earlier article:
•Gottlob, Frege. 1892. “On sense and reference” (Über Sinn und Bedeutung), Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, vol. 100 (1892), pp. 25–50.
We will then read secondary sources from the two works below (originals encouraged to be read).
• Kripke, Saul. 1980. Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
• Kaplan, David. 1989. “Demonstratives: An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology of Demonstratives and other Indexicals”. In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.), Themes From Kaplan. Oxford University Press. pp. 481-563.
Advanced Reading
• Marcus, Ruth Barcan. 1961. “Modalities and Intensional Languages”, Synthese 13, 303-22.
- Teacher: Daniel Altshuler