Modern Philosophy, Teaching
Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson's Homepage
Topics
Topic: Frege
Expound Frege's notions of sinn (sense) and bedeutung (reference/meaning) taking proper names as a an example. How is Frege's distinction supposed to deal with coreference? Do you think it is successful?
- Frege, G.
- 'On Sinn and Bedeutung', 'On Concept and Object', 'Thoughts', and 'Compound Thoughts', all of which may be found in Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic, and Philosophy, ed. B. McGuiness, tr. M. Black, et. al. Blackwell, (1984).
- Beany, M. (1996): Frege: Making Sense, Duckworth.
- Dummet, M. (1993): Frege: Philosophy of Language, ch. 1 (ch. 2-7 are relevant also), Harvard University Press.
Topic: Russell
Essay Question:
Expound Russell's theory of denoting phrases. Do you think that it is successful? Why?
Readings:
- The special issue of Mind: '100 Years on 'On Denoting', volume 114, 456, October 2005 contains Russell's original paper, an excellent introduction by Stephen Neale, and nine papers on the topic by Kripke and Kaplan etc. All of these are relevant.
- If your inside the Oxford network you should be able to access the issue here: http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol114/issue456/index.dtl
Topic: Carnap
Essay Question:
Explain Carnap's distinction between extension and intension. Make reference to Carnap's treatment of coreferring expressions and their occurrence within the scope of belief reports. Do you think that his method is successful? Why?
Readings:
- Carnap, R. (1956): Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic, ch. 1 (The Method of Extension and Intension), The University of Chicago Press.
- Carnap, R. : Meaning and Synonymy in Natural Language, Appendix D in (1956).
- Church, A. (1950): 'On Carnap's Analysis of Statements of Assertion and Belief', Analysis.
- Carnap, R. : On Belief-Sentences. Reply to Alonzo Church, Appendix C in (1956).
Topic: Quine
Essay Question:
Explicate and assess Quine's attacks on meaning and the analytic/synthetic distinction.
Readings:
- Quine, W. V. O. : 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism', in From a Logical Point of View, 2nd edition, revised, Harvard University Press, (1980).
- Quine, W. V. O. (1960): Word and Object, ch. 2, MIT Press.
- Quine, W. V. O. : 'Ontological Relativity, in Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Columbia University Press, 1969.
- Quine, W. V. O. (1990): The Pursuit of Truth, Harvard University Press.
- Horwich, P. (2000): 'On the Existence of Meanings', in Knowledge, Language, and Logic, Kluwer, (2000).
- McDermott, M. (2001): 'Quine's Holism and Functional Holism, Mind, 110, 440. If you're inside the Oxford network, you should be able to access this here: http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/440/977
- Katz, J. J. (1990): 'The Domino Theory', Philosophical Studies, 58.
Topic: Kripke
Essay Question:
How many varieties of necessity and possibility does Kripke acknowledge? How does it/do they operate? Expound the phenomena of the necessary a posteriori and the contingent a priori and their relationship the variety/varieties of necessity and possibility. Make reference to Kripke's notion of rigid designation and provide examples.
Readings:
- Kripke, S. (1980): Naming and Necessity, Blackwell.
Contact details
email seb: sequoiah {at} gmail.com
email inky: inkythewhiteboardmarker {at} gmail.com
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