Philosophy of Language

obowiązkowe

The course is intended to cover basic topics in contemporary philosophy of language. Special attention will be paid to problems in semantics and pragmatics, i.e. semantic conception of truth, infernetialism and directival theory of meaning, semantics of indexical expressions and tenses, belief reports, theories of proposotional content.

The course is intended to cover selected topics in the contemporary philosophy of language. Special attention will be paid to problems in semantics and pragmatics, i.e. semantic conception of truth, infernetialism and directival theory of meaning, semantics of indexical expressions and tenses, belief reports, and theories of propositional content, connections between language and cognition.

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 like Ajdukieiwcz, Tarski, Carnap, Stalnaker, Kripke and Kaplan.

(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:

Topic 1: Truth

W. Künne, Some questions about truth, in: Conceptions of Truth (chapter 1), 2003

A. Tarski, The Semantic Conception of Truth: And the Foundations of Semantics

Topic 2: The method of extension and intension

R. Carnap, Meaning and Necessity, chapter 1.

Topic 3: Inferentialism and Directival Theory of Meaning

Peregrin, J. (2008), An Inferentialist Approach to Semantics: Time for a New Kind of Structuralism?

Paweł Grabarczyk, „Directival Theory of Meaning Resurrected"

Topic 4: Propositions

K. Ajdukiewicz, Proposition as the Connotation of Sentence

R. Stalnaker, Propositions

Topic 5: Belief reports

Brogaard, B. Attitude Reports: Do You Mind the Gap?

S. Kripke, A Puzzle About Belief

Topic 6: Indexicals and demonstratives I

D. Kaplan, Demonstratives, I-XVII.

Topic 7: Indexicals and demonstratives II

S. Predelli, I am not here now

T. Ciecierski, A note on Demonstrative Uses of Indexicals

Topic 8: Time and tense in language

P. Ohrstrom, P. Hasle, Temporal logic (2.4., 2.5., 2.6)

ADDITIONAL READING (for the final exam): Z.G. Szabo, R.H. Thomason, Philosophy of language

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;

Performance in the classes (tutorial part): 50%

Final written exam: 50%

Acceptable number of missed classes without formal explanation: 2