- Philosophy of Language

Catalog description

This course examines the nature of language, meaning and communication. It considers questions such as: What is a language? What is it for a word to have meaning? How is communication possible? Are meanings "in the head"? What is the relation between language and thought? It addresses topics such as reference, the role of speaker intentions, and the indeterminacy of translation as well as some applications and political implications of philosophy of language. Students will be introduced to several strands of philosophy of language such as formal semantics, ordinary language philosophy, and speech act theory and will become familiar with the writings of philosophers ranging from Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein to Quine, Austin, Putnam, Chomsky, Davidson, Langton, and others.