Philosophy of Language - 2nd semester
Code
711031055
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Filosofia
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Paulo Melo
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
1. To acquire basic knowledge of the different theories of meaning and its philosophical assumptions.
2. To connect the problems the problems of language and the theories of knowledge, within the framework of formal logic and of the philosophy of logic.
3. To understand the epistemological and anthropological questions involved in explaining the linguistic processes.
4. To acquire an overview of the main problems of analytic philosophy and contemporary pragmatic .
Prerequisites
Not applicable
Subject matter
Language and World
This course aims to be an introduction to the philosophy of language, focusing on how it developed from the end of the 19th-century up to the present day. We shall begin with the linguistic analysis proposed by Frege and Russell as a way to eliminate philosophical nonsense. Then we shall examine Wittgenstein, who takes up this ideal, putting forward two distinct conceptions of language in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and in the Philosophical Investigations. We shall also analyze the relationship between the Tractarian thought and the positivism of the Vienna Circle, especially the elimination of metaphysics through logical analysis of language promoted by Carnap. The final part of the study will be dedicated to Quines thesis of the indeterminacy of translation and to the view of metaphor defended by Davidson.
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Bibliography
Carnap, R. (1931). Überwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache. Erkenntnis, 2, 219-241; (1959). The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language. In A. J. Ayer (Ed.), Logical Positivism (pp. 60-81). New York, NY: Free Press.
Davidson, D. (1984). What Metaphors Mean. In Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (pp. 245-264). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Frege, G. (1967). Über Sinn und Bedeutung. In Kleine Schriften (pp. 143-162). Hildesheim: Georg Olms; (1980). On Sense and Meaning. In Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege (pp. 56-78). Oxford: Blackwell.
Russell, B. (1905). On Denoting. Mind, 14(56), 479-493.
Wittgenstein, L. (1984). Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung / Philosophische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp; (1987). Tratado Lógico Filosófico / Investigações Filosóficas. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Teaching method
The method adopted for the class combines exposition of the readings and commentaries on them along with discussion of student papers.
Evaluation method
Besides a final exam (60%), each student is required to write a paper to be presented and discussed in class (40%).