Professor: James Woodbridge
email address:
Course Webpage: http://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/unlv/Phil425.htm
Office Hours:  T 11am-12:30pm, W 4pm-5pm, and by appointment
Office: CDC 426
Office Phone: 895-4051
Dept. Phone: 895-3433

This course provides an introduction to analytic philosophy of language by examining a number of topics emphasized in the twentieth century. These topics include Frege's distinction between sense and reference, Russell's theory of descriptions, descriptive and causal theories of reference, verificationism, the analytic/synthetic distinction, the indeterminacy of translation, truth-conditional semantics, the normativity of meaning and ensuing skeptical worries, and (time permitting) semantic pretense and speech acts and intention-based accounts of meaning. Among the thinkers we will study are Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, A. J. Ayer, W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Saul Kripke, J. L. Austin, John Searle, and H. P. Grice.

Books:

Ayer, A. J. Language, Truth, and Logic. New York: Dover Publications, 1952.
Kripke, S. Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Martinich, A. P. The Philosophy of Language (Fifth Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

The books for the course are available at The UNLV Bookstore. (They are also on reserve at Lied Library.)

There will also be several photocopied or online required readings.

III. CLASS REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING SCHEME

Requirements.............................................Percent of Final Grade

Class Participation......................................................10%
First Paper..................................................................30%
Second Paper..............................................................30%
Final Exam..................................................................30%

About the Requirements:

Class Participation--This requirement covers a couple of things things. First, there is your contribution during class. Class attendance is thus necessary. However, to do well you must do more than just attend. You are expected to show up having read the assignment for the day and ready to talk about it. Second, everyone must make at least six contributions to the Electronic Discussion Board (accessible through WebCampus) during the term: three before Oct. 18 and three after.

The First Paper--There will be a 6-8 page paper due in mid October. Paper topics will be distributed 12 days before the paper is due.

The Second Paper--There will be a second 6-8 page paper due in late November. Again, topics will be distributed 12 days before the paper is due.

The Final Exam--There will be a timed (2 hour), in-class final exam given on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 at 3:10pm in our regular classroom. The final will consist of a choice of essay questions.

This is an upper-level philosophy course, so while I will present a lot of the material, our class meetings should also include a lot of student discussion, not just lectures. I hope that you will all have views about the theories we are going to examine, and I want you to express and explore those views whenever possible. It is typical of philosophical topics that people's views on them will differ. You are encouraged to question your classmates (and me) whenever anyone says something you disagree with, but on either side of this sort of exchange, everyone should always keep in mind that expressing disagreement is not a personal attack. Philosophical discussion thrives under this kind of interaction and often stems from disagreement. At the same time, philosophical discussion aims at reaching some sort of agreement. We probably won't reach agreement every time, but we should aspire towards it.


V. TOPICS AND READINGS

Readings from books are listed by author, title, and chapter number. Readings from the Martinich anthology, The Philosophy of Language, are indicated by author, selection title, and "M" followed by chapter or page numbers, in parentheses. Photocopied or online readings are labeled as such.
A note about the readings: As you well know, philosophical writing is often subtle and difficult. This is especially true of the reading assignments for this course, many of which are also somewhat technical; most of them should be read at least twice. It also helps to take notes on separate paper while reading.

The course units and readings for them are as follows.

Frege, Gottlob. "On Sense and Nominatum [Reference]" (M 14)
Russell, Bertrand. "Descriptions" (M 16)
Russell, "On Denoting" (M 15)
Strawson, P. F. "On Referring" (M 17)
Donnellan, Keith. "Reference and Definite Descriptions" (M 19)
Kripke, Saul. "Naming and Necessity"(M 21)

Ayer, A. J. Language, Truth, and Logic, Chapters 1-6
Quine, W. V. O. "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (M 3)
Quine, "Translation and Meaning"(M 38)

Davidson, Donald. "Truth and Meaning" (M 7)
Davidson, "Radical Interpretation" (photocopy)
Davidson, "Reply to Foster" (photocopy)
Loar, Brian. "Two Theories of Meaning" (photocopy)

Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language, Chapters 1-3

Richard, Mark. "Semantic Pretense" (photocopy)
Kroon, Frederick. "Descriptivism, Pretense, and the Frege-Russell Problems" (M 37)
Woodbridge, James. "Propositions as Semantic Pretense" (online reading)

Grice, H. P. "Meaning" (M 6)
Grice, "Logic and Conversation" (M 11)
Austin, J. L. "Performative Utterances" (M 8)
Searle, John. "A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts" (M 10)