Readings
[Lycan] = Lycan, William G. Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy). 2nd ed. Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 9780415957526.
[Martinich] = Martinich, Aloysius P., ed. The Philosophy of Language. 5th ed. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195188301.
| LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | (no readings) |
| 2 | Meaning and reference |
“Introduction.” Chapter 1 in [Lycan]. Frege, Gottlob. “On Sense and Nominatum.” Chapter 14 in [Martinich]. |
| 3 | Descriptions |
“Definite Descriptions.” Chapter 2 in [Lycan]. Russell, Bertrand. “On Denoting.” Chapter 15 in [Martinich]. |
| 4 | Names and descriptions |
“Proper Names, The Description Theory.” Chapter 3 in [Lycan]. Russell, Bertrand. “Descriptions.” Chapter 16 in [Martinich]. |
| 5 | Direct reference |
“Proper Names, Direct Reference.” Chapter 4 in [Lycan]. Kripke, Saul. “Naming and Necessity.” Chapter 21 in [Martinich]. |
| 6 | What is meaning? |
“Traditional Theories of Meaning.” Chapter 5 in [Lycan]. Frege, Gottlob. “The Thought: A Logical Inquiry.” Chapter 1 in [Martinich]. |
| 7 | Empiricist theories |
“Verificationism.” Chapter 8 in [Lycan]. Hempel, Carl G. “Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance.” Chapter 2 in [Martinich]. Quine, W. V. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” Chapter 3 in [Martinich]. |
| 8 | Psychological theories |
“Psychological Theories.” Chapter 7 in [Lycan]. Grice, H. P. “Meaning.” Chapter 6 in [Martinich]. |
| 9 | Truth-conditional theories |
“Truth-conditional Theories.” Chapters 9 and 10 in [Lycan]. Davidson, Donald. “Truth and Meaning.” Chapter 7 in [Martinich]. Lewis, David. “Languages and Language.” Chapter 45 in [Martinich]. |
| 10 | Context sensitivity |
“Semantic Pragmatics.” Chapter 11 in [Lycan]. Kaplan, David. “Dthat.” Chapter 25 in [Martinich]. |
| 11 | The essential indexical |
Kaplan, David. “On the Logic of Demonstratives.” Chapter 26 in [Martinich]. Perry, John. “The Problem of the Essential Indexical.” Chapter 27 in [Martinich]. |
| 12 | The Kripkenstein paradox | Kripke, Saul. “On Rules and Private Language.” Chapter 43 in [Martinich]. |
| 13 | Naturalistic reduction | Millikan, Ruth Garrett. “Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox.” Chapter 44 in [Martinich]. |
| 14 | Speech acts |
“Speech Acts and Illocutionary Force.” Chapter 12 in [Lycan]. Austin, J. L. “Performative Utterances.” Chapter 8 in [Martinich]. |
| 15 | Illocutionary force |
Searle, John R. “The Structure of Illocutionary Acts.” Chapter 9 in [Martinich]. ———. “A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts.” Chapter 10 in [Martinich]. |
| 16 | Presupposition |
Stalnaker, Robert. “Presuppositions.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 2, no. 4 (1973): 447–57. Fintel, Kai von. “Would You Believe It? The King of France is Back! (Presuppositions and Truth-Value Intuitions).” In Descriptions and Beyond. Edited by Marga Reimer and Anne Bezuidenhout. Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 315–41. ISBN: 9780199270521. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 17 | Assertion |
Stalnaker, Robert. “Assertion.” Chapter 13 in [Martinich]. Yablo, Stephen. “Non-Catastrophic Presupposition Failure.” In Content and Modality: Themes From The Philosophy of Robert Stalnaker. Edited by Judith Thomson and Alex Byrne. Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 164–90. ISBN: 9780199282807. |
| 18 | Implicature |
“Implicative Relations.” Chapter 13 in [Lycan]. Grice, H. P. “Logic and Conversation.” Chapter 11 in [Martinich]. |
| 19 | Attitudes, the hidden indexical theory |
Crimmins, Mark, and John Perry. “The Prince and the Phone Booth: Reporting Puzzling Beliefs.” The Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 12 (1989): 685–711. Saul, Jennifer M. “Substitution and Simple Sentences.” Analysis 57, no. 2 (1997): 102–8. |
| 20 | Attitudes, the implicature theory |
Braun, David. “Understanding Belief Reports.” The Philosophical Review 107, no. 4 (1998): 555–95. Salmon, Nathan. “How to Become a Millian Heir.” Noûs 23, no. 2 (1989): 211–20. |
| 21 | Attitudes, the pragmatic theory | Stalnaker, Robert. “Semantics for Belief.” Chapter 33 in [Martinich]. |
| 22 | Non-literal speech |
“Metaphor.” Chapter 14 in [Lycan]. Davidson, Donald. “What Metaphors Mean.” Chapter 34 in [Martinich]. |
| 23 | Making believe | Walton, Kendall. “Metaphor and Prop Oriented Make-Believe.” European Journal of Philosophy 1, no. 1 (1993): 39–57. |
| 24 | Semantic pretense and attitude ascriptions | Crimmins, Mark. “Hesperus and Phosphorous: Sense, Pretense, and Reference.” Chapter 36 in [Martinich]. |
| 25 | Pragmatic pretense and Frege problems |
Kroon, Frederick. “Descriptivism, Pretense, and the Frege-Russell Problems.” Chapter 37 in [Martinich]. Walton, Kendall. “Existence As Metaphor?” In Empty Names, Fiction, and the Puzzles of Non-existence. Edited by Anthony Everett and Thomas Hofweber. CLSI Publications, 2000, pp. 69–94. ISBN: 9781575862538. |
| 26 | Humpty Dumpty, malaprop, etc. | Davidson, Donald. “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs.” Chapter 40 in [Martinich]. |
