Philosophy of Language 3800-ISP-PL

The course is intended to cover basic topics in contemporary philosophy of language. Special attention will be paid to problems in semantics and pragmatics, semantics of names, descriptions and indexical expressions, intensional vs. extensional treatments of different contexts, possible worlds semantics, relationships between philosophy of language and epistemology and philosophy of mind.

The course will be divided into two parts: a lecture part and a proper tutorial part. The aim of the lecture part is to outline a general philosophical and logical framework for philosophy of language, whereas the exercise part will be dedicated to reading and discussing relevant texts of contemporary philosophers from Frege and Russell to Kripke, Kaplan and others.

The tentative list of topics/readings:

Topic 1: Truth
A. Tarski, The Semantic Conception of Truth: And the Foundations of Semantics
W. Künne, Some questions about truth, in: Conceptions of Truth (chapter 1), 2003 [

Topic 2: The method of extension and intension
R. Carnap, Meaning and Necessity, chapter 1

Topic 3: Belief reports
A. Church, Intensional Isomorphism and Identity of Belief
S. Kripke, A Puzzle About Belief

Topic 4: Propositions
K. Ajdukiewicz, Proposition as the Connotation of Sentence
R. Stalnaker, Propositions

Topic 5: Indexicals and demonstratives
D. Kaplan, Demonstratives, I-XVII.
S. Predelli, I am not here now
Corazza, E.; Fish, W.; Gorvett, J.. Who Is I? [

Topic 6: Time and tense in language
P. Ohrstrom, P. Hasle, Temporal logic (2.4., 2.5., 2.6)
Z.G. Szabo, R.H. Thomason, Philosophy of language, chapter 4: Tense and Modality

Topic 7: Counterfactuals (and conditionals)
J. Bennett, A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals, chapters: 1, 10, 11.

Rodzaj przedmiotu

obowiązkowe

Koordynatorzy przedmiotu

Tadeusz Ciecierski

Efekty kształcenia

Students identify basic problems in philosophy of language;
Students understand the importance of logical tools in the study of language;
Students are familiar with some leading conceptions in contemporary philosophy of language;
Students are able to understand and critically interpret highly difficult texts;
Students readily reconstruct some characteristic arguments in the philosophy of language and assess their value.
Students appreciate the diversity of approaches and standpoints in matters philosophical;
Students are open towards views and arguments questioning their own beliefs;

Kryteria oceniania

Performance in the classes (tutorial part): 50% (students shall be asked to prepare a presentation devoted to one of the topics as well as send questions/short comments regarding each topic).
Final written exam: 50%

Acceptable number of missed classes without formal explanation: 2

Literatura

(Tentative list, changes possible)

A/ TEXTBOOKS

(1) S. Levinson, Pragmatics
(2) Z. G. Szabo & R. H. Thomasson, Philosophy of Language
(3) W. G. Lycan, Philosophy of Language. A contemporary introduction.

B/ SOURCE TEXTS: