Introduction to the Philosophy of Language

A. Course Description

What is language? What is meaning? What's the connection between language, thinking, and the world? Such questions have been occupying philosophers at all times, but they have given birth to a whole new paradigm in philosophy after the linguistic turn in the mid of last century. Since the tremendous influence of questions about language and meaning for clarifying traditional philosophical problems has been recognized, nearly all domains of contemporary analytical philosophy have become sensitive to linguistic arguments (in a broad sense). This seminar will give an introduction to the central topics in the philosophy of language, such as truth-conditional meaning theory, the distinction between sense and reference, referential opacity, the New Theory of Reference, presuppositions, and speech act theory. Emphasis will be put on familiarizing the participants with the abundant and not always clear-cut terminology used in philosophy of language and theoretical linguistics, in order to facilitate the reading and understanding of primary texts. Some acquaintance with formal logic or set theory is welcome, but not required. Working language will be English.

B. Course Slides

Here you may download the course slides for each session after the respective meeting took place. For viewing the slides on screen (recommended), you need to open the downloaded PDF file in Adobe Reader and choose fullscreen mode. Alternatively, you may download the print version.

Updated on 2005-06-29: Minor Spelling Corrections. It has been brought to my attention that "wether" means ‘castrated male sheep or goat’, which isn't exactly what I intended to convey if you take my utterances from a Gricean point of view.

Topic	Date	On-Screen Version	Print Version
Introduction	2/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Sense & Reference	4/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Theories of Reference (additional session)	9/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Rigid Designation	11/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Referential Opacity	16/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Presuppositions, Implicatures, Speech Acts	18/11/2004	click to download	click to download
Pragmatics (skipped)	n/a	click to download	click to download

Note: The last session on formal pragmatics has been cancelled in favor of an additional session for discussing reference, but nevertheless I've decided to make the slides available. They introduce Gärdenfors' belief revision theory but only discuss pragmatic presuppositions. Feel free to add what is missing yourself (retracting beliefs, presupposition accommodation, conversational implicatures)

C. Literature

I. Textbook

Lycan, William G.: Philosophy of Language. A contemporary introduction. Routledge. London, New York 2000.

(The textbook is recommended for purchase, but reading it is optional.)

II. Session 1 and 2 (2/11/2004 & 4/11/2004)

Text

Frege, Gottlob (1892): Über Sinn und Bedeutung. (On Sense and Reference). Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik (1892), 25-50. Various translations, for example in: Geach, Peter and Black, Max (eds.): Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege. Oxford. Blackwell 1980. pp. 56-78.

Optional Readings

Chapter 1 and 2 of Lycan (2000)
Russell, Bertrand (1905): On Denoting. Mind 14. pp. 479-493. (*)
Strawson, Peter (1950): On Referring. Mind 50. pp. 320-344.

III. Session 3 (9/11/2004)

Text

Kripke, Saul: Naming and Necessity. Harvard UP. Cambridge 1980. (excerpts from the reader)

Optional Readings

Chapter 3 and 4 of Lycan (2000)
Searl, John R. (1958): Proper Names. Mind 67 (April 1958). pp. 166-73.

IV. Session 4 (11/11/2004)

Text

Kripke, Saul: A Puzzle about Belief. Kripke, Saul. 1979. "A Puzzle About Belief." In A. Margalit (ed.): Meaning and Use. Reidel. Dordrecht 1979. pp. 239-83. Reprinted in A.P. Martinich (ed.): The Philosophy of Language, 3rd and 4th editions. Also in Nathan Salmon and Scott Soames (Eds.): Propositional Attitudes.

Optional Readings

Quine, Willard van Orman (1956): Quantifiers and Propositional Attitudes. Journal of Philosophy 53 (5). (March 1, 1956). 177-87. (*)

V. Session 5 (15/11/2004)

Text

Levinson, Stephen C.: Pragmatics. Cambridge UP. Cambridge 1983. (excerpts from the reader; also recommended for purchase)

Optional Readings

Chapter 12 and 13 of Lycan (2000)
Austin, John Langshaw (1962): Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary. In: J.O. Urmson (ed.). How to do Things with Words. The William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955. Harvard UP / Clarendon Press. Cambridge, Mass. / Oxford 1962. Lectures VII-VIII. Reprinted in: Harnish, Robert M. (ed.): Basic Topics in the Philosophy of Language. Harvester Wheatsheaf. New York. 1994. pp. 30-39.
Strawson, P. F. (1964): Intention and Convention in Speech Acts. Philosophical Review 73. 439-60.
Grice, Paul: Logic and Conversation. In: Cole, P. and Morgan, J. (eds.): Syntax and Semantics. vol. 3. Academic Press. 1975. pp. 41-58.

VI. Session 6 (18/11/2004)

Text

(no required reading)

Optional Readings

Stalnaker, Robert (1998): On the Representation of Context. Journal of Logic, Language, and Information 7. 1998. pp. 3-19. (*)

(*)=hard reading, requires some acquaintance with formal logic