Seminar in Logic and Philosophy of Language
Code
73203108
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Filosofia
Credits
10
Weekly hours
2
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) Foment the capacity of analysis and rigour of reasoning in the critical examination of theses, arguments and debates on the problems of logic and philosophy of language.
b) Gain the capacity of discovering new ways of analyzing a problem and rigorously grounding the arguments advanced.
c) Develop the capacity of dialogue and communication in the debate of ideas with all the participants in the Seminar.
d) Participate actively in the more relevant discussions that occupy the publications, workshops and conferences, be they national or international, with new ideas and personal arguments.
e) Develop and materialize new initiatives, both within academia and society, which aim at promoting the interest and exigency of rigour and clarity in thinking and argumentation.
f) Establish with each participant in the Seminar innovative research projects according to the themes and authors to be dealt with in their theses.
g) Collaborate with and supervise the participants in the study program, readings and researches, so that they know well the “state of the art” or the status quaestionis more related to the respective working papers and research projects.
Prerequisites
n/a
Subject matter
Frege: Logic and Philosophy of Language
The seminar centres on Frege’s fundamental contribution to both logic and philosophy of language. Some key-texts are analyzed, namely Conceptual Notation, The Foundations of Arithmetic and the Basic Laws of Arithmetic, as well as “On Sense and Reference” and “The Thought”. Different receptions of Frege’s philosophy in the 20th century are also examined, especially those of Michael Dummett and the new Wittgensteinians, among them Cora Diamond and James Conant, who were responsible for a revitalization of the Fregian context principle.
Bibliography
Dummett, M. (1981). Frege: Philosophy of Language (2nd ed.). London: Duckworth.
Frege, G. (1966). Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, vol. I. Hildesheim: Georg Olms; (1964). The Basic Laws of Arithmetic. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Frege, G. (1988). Begriffsschrift. Hildesheim: Georg Olms; (1972). Conceptual Notation and Related Articles. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Frege, G. (1988). Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Hamburg: Felix Meiner; (1992). Os Fundamentos da Aritmética. Lisboa: IN-CM.
Reck, E. H., ed. (2002). From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives in Early Analytic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Teaching method
The method adopted for the class combines readings and commentaries of texts in seminar along with discussion of student papers.
Evaluation method
Each student is required to write a paper (60%) to be presented and discussed in class (40%).