Readings

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction
2	Modeling a representation system (I)	Stalnaker, Robert. "The Problem of Intentionality." Chapter 1 in Inquiry. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780262691130. Field, Hartry. "Stalnaker on Intentionality." Chapter 3 in Truth and the Absence of Fact. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780199242894.
3	Modeling a representation system (II)	Field, Hartry. "Mental Representation." Chapter 2 in Truth and the Absence of Fact. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780199242894. Stalnaker, Robert. "The Linguistic Picture." Chapter 2 in Inquiry. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780262691130.
4	Lewis on radical interpretation	Lewis, David. "Radical Interpretation." Reprinted in Philosophical Papers. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780195032048. ———. "Languages and Language." Reprinted in Philosophical Papers Vol. 1. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780195032048. Laurence, Stephen. "A Chomskian Alternative to Convention-based Semantics." Mind 105 (1996): 269-301.
5	The language of thought	Fodor, Jerry. "Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought?" Appendix in Psychosemantics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780262560528. ———. "Propositional Attitudes." In Perspectives in the Philosophy of Language. Edited by Robert J. Stainton. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press, 2000. ISBN: 9781551112534. Optional additional reading: Rescorla, Michael. "Cognitive Maps and the Language of Thought." The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60, no. 2 (2009): 377-407.
6	Grammar for a radical interpreter	Lewis, David. "Index, Context and Content." Chapter 2 in Papers in Philosophical Logic Vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780521587884 ———. "Putnam's Paradox." Australasian Journal of Philosophy 62, no. 3 (1984): 221-236. A relevant paper that every philosopher should read at least once: Lewis, David. "General Semantics." Synthese 22, nos. 1-2 (1970): 18-67.
7	Localism	Rayo, Agustin. "Vague Representation." Mind 117, no. 466 (2008): 329-373. Some of the discussion will presuppose familiarity with the following: Stalnaker, Robert. "Assertion." In Context and Content. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780198237075. ———. "On Considering a Possible World as Actual." In Ways a World Might Be. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780199251490.
8	Abilities and incoherent belief Guest lecture: Adam Elga, Princeton University	Stalnaker, Robert. "The Problem of Logical Omniscience I." In Context and Content. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780198237075. Optional background readings: Byrne, Alex. "Review of 'There's Something About Mary." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, January 20, 2006. (Read the passage beginning "These five options are all controversial..." and ending "...Disputes about our imaginative limitations, the ability hypothesis, acquaintance, and the rest, fascinating though they are, just serve to distract attention from this fundamental flaw.") Christensen, David. "Does Murphy's Law Apply in Epistemology? Self-Doubt and Rational Ideals." Oxford Studies in Epistemology 2 (2007): 3-31. (PDF) Powers, Lawrence H. "Knowledge by Deduction." The Philosophical Review 87, no. 3 (1978): 337-371.
9	Mathematical truth	Rayo, Agustin. "Neo-Fregeanism Reconsidered." Forthcoming in Abstractionism in Mathematics: Status Belli. Edited by Philip Ebert and Marcus Rossberg. (PDF) ———. "An Account of Possibility." Draft paper, March 18, 2008. (PDF)
10	Believing necessary truths: Mary	Stalnaker, Robert. "Epistemic Possibilities and the Knowledge Argument" and "Phenomenal and Epistemic Indistinguishability." Chapters 2 and 4 in Our Knowledge of the Internal World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199545995. If you're not familiar with the Knowledge Argument, please read: Byrne, Alex. "Review of 'There's Something About Mary." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, January 20, 2006. You might also consider reading: Lewis, David. "What Experience Teaches." Chapter 17 in Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780521587877.
11	Representing degrees of belief	Rayo, Agustin. "A Puzzle About Ineffable Propositions." Draft paper, May 11, 2009. (PDF) Optional background readings: White, Roger. "Evidential Symmetry and Mushy Credence." Forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Epistemology Vol. 3. Edited by Tamar Gendler and John Hawthorne. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199584093. Wright, Crispin. "Wittgensteinian Certainties." Chapter 1 in Wittgenstein and Scepticism. Edited by Denis McManus. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 9780415232913. (PDF)
12	Hare on self-location	Hare, Caspar. On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. (Read chapters 3, 4 and 6.) ISBN: 9780691135311.
13	Student presentations

MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT's subjects available on the Web, free of charge. With more than 2,000 courses available, OCW is delivering on the promise of open sharing of knowledge.

© 2001–2012
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Your use of the MIT OpenCourseWare site and materials is subject to our Creative Commons License and other terms of use.