28002 - Philosophy of Language (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student achieves an average competence in the philosophy of contemporary language, with the in-depth study of a specific topic and the guided reading of a classic.

Course contents

Language and reality


Analytic philosophy, which emerged in the early 20th century, radically transformed the way we conceive of language, meaning and reality. Philosophers such as Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and W.V.O. Quine developed conceptual and methodological tools that made it possible to tackle philosophical problems with unprecedented rigour. The contemporary debate in analytic philosophy has refined these conceptual tools in an attempt to elucidate the nature of the problem of the relationship between language and reality and has developed new response strategies that are still being discussed in contemporary international research.

In this course, various philosophical contributions that address this question will be analysed and evaluated. The key questions that characterise this course are

Q1) Does reality have a ‘structure’ that mirrors linguistic structure?

Q2) How do linguistic representations of the world relate to other types of representations of the world?

Q3) Do natural languages presuppose a certain metaphysics?

Q4) Is analytic metaphysics in any way questionable centred on language?

Readings/Bibliography

NOTE 1: all texts are available online on Virtuale here.
NOTE 2: all the selected texts are in English, this is because, as is the case in scientifically mature disciplines, the best contemporary literature in philosophy is published in English in specialised international journals.

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Language and reality at the dawn of analytic philosophy:

Frege, Gottlob (2001) [1892] “Concetto e oggetto” in Senso, funzione e concetto. Scritti filosofici. Bari: Laterza.

Klement, Kevin, ‘Russell's Logical Atomism’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/logical-atomism/>.

Ramsey, Frank P. (1925). Universals. Mind 34 (136):401-417.


Heil on the theory of representation and Quine's ontological commitment criterion

John Heil, ‘Introduction’, in From an Ontological Point of View, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Cameron, Ross & Barnes, Elizabeth (2007). A critical study of John Heil's ‘from an ontological point of view’. SWIF Philosophy of Mind Review

Quine, W. V. (1953). On what there is. In Willard Van Orman Quine (ed.), From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 1-19.


The Lewis-Sider notion of naturalness/structure

Lewis, David K. (1983). New work for a theory of universals. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 61 (4):343-377.

Sider, Theodore (2009). Ontological realism. In Ryan Wasserman, David Manley & David Chalmers (eds.), Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 384--423.

Conceptual engeneering

Cappelen, Herman & Plunkett, David (2020). Introduction: A Guided Tour Of Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics. In Alexis Burgess, Herman Cappelen & David Plunkett (eds.), Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 1-34.

Josh Dever, “Preliminary Scouting Reports from the Outer Limits of Conceptual Engineering”, In Alexis Burgess, Herman Cappelen & David Plunkett (eds.), Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 152-69.
Lecture 6:

How do maps represent the world?

Camp, Elisabeth (2009). A language of baboon thought. In Robert W. Lurz (ed.), The Philosophy of Animal Minds. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 108--127.

Camp, Elisabeth (2018). Why maps are not propositional. In Alex Grzankowski & Michelle Montague (eds.), Non-Propositional Intentionality. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Might there be no individuals?

Sider, Ted , (2020) “Individuals”, The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press, cap. 3.

Turner, Jason (2011). Ontological Nihilism. Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 6:3-54.

Ontology of natural language.

Moltmann, Friederike (2020). Natural Language Ontology (Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics). In Ricki Bliss & James Miller (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 325-338.

Bach, Emmon & Chao, Wynn (2012). The Metaphysics of Natural Language (s). In Ruth M. Kempson, Tim Fernando & Nicholas Asher (eds.), Philosophy of linguistics. Boston: North Holland. pp. 175.

Are certain concepts somehow inescapable? And if so, what does this imply with regard to the representation of reality?

Hofweber, Thomas (2024). Inescapable Concepts. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 102 (1):159-179.

Come si relazionano le parole con il mondo?

Pietroski, Paul M. (2005). Meaning before truth. In Gerhard Preyer & Georg Peter (eds.), Contextualism in philosophy: knowledge, meaning, and truth. New York: Oxford University Press.

Liebesman, David & Magidor, Ofra (2017). Copredication and Property Inheritance. Philosophical Issues 27 (1):131-166.

Eklund, Matti (2005). Fiction, indifference, and ontology. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (3):557–579.

Teaching methods

Lessons

A detailed syllabus will be posted on Virtuale, in which the lectures with accompanying readings will be scheduled.

Methodologies

Each lesson will consist of a short introduction to the topic followed by a discussion involving all students.

Depending on the size of the class, during the lessons I will use the peer instruction method (if the class is large, see also the explanation in teaching methods in this course of mine) or the community of inquiry methodology (if the class is small) to directly involve the class group.

For these active teaching methods to work, the class group is required to read the compulsory readings assigned to each lesson in advance.

All texts will also be made available online on Perusall so that they can be discussed asynchronously before the lesson.

Assessment methods

Assessment during the course:

• collective reading of texts during the course via the social reading platform perusall.com
• comprehension questions using the peer instruction method during class.

NOTE: these tests will not be averaged but will be useful for attending students to consolidate the learning of the course topics.

Assessment during exam:

• essay writing
• oral test.

The length of the essay varies depending on whether you are attending or not.

ATTENDING STUDENTS short essay: at least 1500 words and no more than 3000 words (everything included: first name, surname, course of study, title, bibliography).

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS long essay: at least 3000 words and no more than 4000 words (all inclusive: first name, last name, freshman, course of study, title, bibliography).

Attendance or non-attendance will be determined on the basis of the continuity with which the students will participate in the tests during the course: an attending student must complete at least 70% of the assignments on perusall (the web address will be given at the beginning of the course).

VERIFICATION CRITERIA FOR THE EXAMINATION

I will use these verification criteria to determine the following evaluation thresholds:

30 and praise excellent proof, both in knowledge and in the critical and expressive articulation.

30 excellent test, complete knowledge, well articulated and correctly expressed, with some critical ideas.

27-29 good test, comprehensive and satisfactory knowledge, substantially correct expression.

24-26 discrete test, knowledge present in the substantial points, but not exhaustive and not always correctly articulated.

21-23 sufficient proof, knowledge present in a sometimes superficial way, but the general thread is understood. Short and often inappropriate and incomplete expression and articulation.

18-21 superficial knowledge, the common thread is not understood with continuity. The expression and the articulation of the discourse also have significant gaps.


<18 insufficient evidence, absent or very incomplete knowledge, lack of orientation in the discipline, defective and inappropriate expression. Examination not passed.

 

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact teachers or Department staff, but make an appointment with the Service. The Service will then determine what adjustments are specifically appropriate, and get in touch with the teacher. For more information, please visit the page:

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Teaching tools

Elearning, slide and handouts, Wooclap and Perusall (http://persuall.com) software for peer instruction.

Office hours

See the website of Sebastiano Moruzzi