- Docente: Paolo Leonardi
- Credits: 6
- SSD: M-FIL/05
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Modern, Post-Colonial and Comparative Literatures (cod. 0981)
Learning outcomes
The student will yield a minimum competence in contemporary
philosophy of language, anchored to a longer investigation of one
of its central notions, reference
Course contents
Word and thing
How a word a a thing connect with each other? A word is
a realistic image, a portrait, of what it designates?
'Running' expresses with the 'u' the effort and with the 'r'
the speed? Or the name is an arbitrary label? If it is
a label, can an individual by herself freely shift labels?
There are many ways to articulate either model, which have
language as a mirror, or a 1:1 map, or as a map with a much higher
scale, with "atomic" pieces not portraying what they
designate.
A series of alternative ideas: language as spread through the
environment as distributed cognition. Language as
specializing prelinguistic cognition, especially perception and
attention. Language as action. Language as context
modifier. When all this is in, language can represent, and be
a most satisfying tool for thinking.
Readings/Bibliography
Texts will be indicated in class.
Check weekly my site for my class
notes:
http://www-utenti.dsc.unibo.it/~paolo.leonardi/
Teaching methods
Lectures and discussions on selected texts.
Assessment methods
Paper, to be in sent by email three days in advance of
discussion. The exact schedule of the discussion will be on
line 24 hours in advance of the session.
Teaching tools
See web page http://www-utenti.dsc.unibo.it/%7Epaolo.leonardi/
Links to further information
http://www-utenti.dsc.unibo.it/%7Epaolo.leonardi/
Office hours
See the website of Paolo Leonardi