Lawrence R Buchanan

This course is an advanced introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of
belief, truth, and knowledge with an emphasis on the latter. Topics to be discussed include,
but are not limited to, the following:
• What is knowledge? For example, what is the difference between knowledge and
mere true belief?
• What are the basic sources of knowledge (i.e., perception, memory, testimony of
others)?
• Why, if at all, should we value the acquisition of knowledge?
• Is it really possible to know anything at all?

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor or instructor required.

Course Description:

This course will be a high level introduction to foundational issues in pragmatics and the philosophy of language.  Topics to be discussed will include, but are not limited to the following: assertion, conversational implicature, presupposition, mutual knowledge, speaker meaning/reference, speech act theory, and the nature, and scope, of context-dependency.  One of the principal aims of the course will be to illustrate how reflecting on work in action theory and epistemology helps to further our philosophical understanding of these topics (and others) in the philosophy of language.

Grading:

One term paper paper (16-20 pages) (100% of the grade of the term), and a required in-class presentation.

Readings:

Readings will include work Kent Bach and Robert Harnish, Wayne Davis, Paul Grice, David Lewis, Stephen Schiffer, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, Robert Stalnaker, and numerous other philosophers of language and linguists.  From the action theory literature, we will look at work by Michael Bratman, Richard Holton, David Velleman, and others.

This course is an advanced introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of
belief, truth, and knowledge with an emphasis on the latter. Topics to be discussed include,
but are not limited to, the following:
• What is knowledge? For example, what is the difference between knowledge and
mere true belief?
• What are the basic sources of knowledge (i.e., perception, memory, testimony of
others)?
• Why, if at all, should we value the acquisition of knowledge?
• Is it really possible to know anything at all?

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

This course is an advanced introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of
belief, truth, and knowledge with an emphasis on the latter. Topics to be discussed include,
but are not limited to, the following:
• What is knowledge? For example, what is the difference between knowledge and
mere true belief?
• What are the basic sources of knowledge (i.e., perception, memory, testimony of
others)?
• Why, if at all, should we value the acquisition of knowledge?
• Is it really possible to know anything at all?

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

Restricted to First-Year Philosophy Graduate Students.

Prerequisites

Graduate Standing and Consent of Graduate Advisor required.

Course Description:

This course will be a research seminar on foundational issues concerning mental and linguistic representation. Issues to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• What is the explanatory and predictive role of representational contents in folk psychology? 
• What must the contents of our thoughts, and speech acts, be like if they are to play these roles? 
• More generally, how is representation so much as possible? What are the facts in virtue of which a thing – be it a neurophysiological state of a creature, or a bit of language – come to have representational properties in the first place?  
• What is the relation between mental and linguistic content?  Can the latter be accounted for in terms of the former? 

 Many of these issues were intensely debated by the leading philosophers in the 1970s and 80s, including Dennett, Stalnaker, Lewis, Field, Schiffer, Stich, Fodor and Kripke(nstein). The debate appeared to have died down for some time in the 90s, not on account of any solutions having been agreed upon, but more likely on account of a better appreciation of how daunting the problems were. Many, if not most, philosophers of mind and language subsequently turned their attention to ostensibly more tractable areas of research, such as empirically informed cognitive science and linguistics. However, in recent years, a small number of young philosophers have published several important papers on the issues we are interested in. In our seminar we will look at these recent contributions, as well as some of our own work in progress on these topics.  

Grading Policy:

90% term paper; 5% one in-class oral presentation; 5% preparation for and participation during class meetings.

Texts:

Readings: all readings will be made available electronically. Representative authors will include Stalnaker, Field, Schiffer, Fodor, Lewis, Davidson, Dennett and Kripke.

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions. 

This course is an advanced introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of
belief, truth, and knowledge with an emphasis on the latter. Topics to be discussed include,
but are not limited to, the following:
• What is knowledge? For example, what is the difference between knowledge and
mere true belief?
• What are the basic sources of knowledge (i.e., perception, memory, testimony of
others)?
• Why, if at all, should we value the acquisition of knowledge?
• Is it really possible to know anything at all?

The course focuses on various philosophical issues concerning language. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to, the following: speaker-meaning, conversational implicature, sentence/expression-meaning, reference, modality, and propositional attitude ascriptions.