Preferences and Values (Summer 2014/2015)

This course for masters students is a gentle introduction to preference-based values, as they are commonly used and discussed in Analytical Ethics, Economics & Decision Making and Social Choice. Up-to-date information can be found on the courses's homepage.

Problems of Meaning (Winter 2013)

In this course for masters students we read and dicsuss key texts on meaning in the Philosophy of Language by authors such as Frege, Carnap, Ayer, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, Grice, Chomsky, and Leibniz. Up-to-date information can be found on the courses's homepage.

Logic for Linguists (Winter 2010)

This is an introductory logic course (logic, not semantics!) for linguists. It covers basic set theory, propositional logic, first-order logic, and some higher-order logic with categorial grammar - but the last topic has fallen prey to time constraints. Check out the course page for updated versions of the lecture notes.

Kripke's Naming and Necessity (Winter 2005)

This course covers various semantic, epistemic, and modal aspects of Kripke's Naming and Necessity up to recent debates about Millianism versus descriptivism. Among the topics to be discussed are theories of reference, natural kind terms, the nature of modality, the Mind-Body problem, and many more. More information is available on the course page.

Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (Winter 2004)

This short introductory course covers basic topics in the analytical philosophy of language such as Frege's Sense and Reference distinction, theories of reference and rigid designation, referential opacity and propositional attitudes, presuppositions, speech acts, and conversational implicatures. A course page with downloadable course slides in pdf format is available here.