NB: Most of the readings are in the Martinich volume (see below). Links to articles are provided mainly through the JSTOR database. To get them you will need to use a machine that is licenced to access that database. Any machine that is operating through an MIT server, or has MIT certificates, should work. However, the MIT library has configured access to JSTOR so that it has to go through VERA. If you have problems using the links provided here, access JSTOR on http://libraries.mit.edu/get/jstor.
Texts I have ordered one books for the Coop: A.P. Martinich (ed.) The Philosophy of Language Fifth edition (OUP, 2008!) [The fourth edition, 2001, will also do fine]
You will also need, at some point before week four:
Four assessments:
Assignment Two, critical note (due beginning of week seven) 10%; Assignment Three short paper (due week ten) 40%: Assignment Four short paper (due week thirteen) 40%:
Week One [Handout I] [Handout II] [Handout II*]
Week Two [Handout III]
Russell, 'Descriptions' Week Three
Michael Friedman Logical Positivism in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Mauro Murzi Logical Positivism formerly in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Hempel, 'Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance' Weeks Four & Five [Handout V] [Handout VI] [Handout VII]
Putnam 'Meaning and Reference' Week Six [Handout VIII] [Handout IX]
Donnellan, 'Reference and Definite Descriptions' Kripke, 'Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference' Week Seven[Handout X] [Handout XI]
Yablo 'Non-Catastropic Presupposition Failure' Perry, 'The Problem of the Essential Indexical', Lewis 'Attitudes De Dicto and De Se'
Week Eight [Handout XII] [Handout XIII]
Grice 'Logic and Conversation' Week Nine [Handout XIV] [Handout XV]
Supplementary reading: Lewis 'Elusive Knowledge' Langton 'Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts' Langton and West 'Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game' Week Ten [Handout XVI]
Week Eleven [Handout XVII] [Handout XVIII]
Davidson 'On Saying That' Kripke 'A Puzzle About Belief' Salmon 'How to Become a Millian Heir'
Saul 'Substitution and Simple Sentences'
Week Thirteen [Handout XX] [Handout XXI]
Tarski 'The Semantic Conception of Truth, and the Foundations of Semantics' Stoljar, 'The Deflationary Theory of Truth'
Week Fourteen
Millikan 'Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox' Holton 'Meaning and Rule Following'
Office: 32-d915 (Stata Center, Ninth Floor of the Dreyfoos Tower) Office hours: By appointment (please email). |