PHIL 526 (B1), Winter 2011

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

Jeff Pelletier

Email: Jeff.Pelletier@ualberta.ca

This is the main course page for Phil 526 this semester. I will post links to readings, due dates, and general announcements. So, you should definitely monitor this page for class information.

Here (pdf html) is an “outline” for this class. It is pretty high-level, but you should look at it for information about the sort of topics we will be discussing and the method of grade evaluation that will be employed.

You should be aware that the new Canadian copyright act has imposed stiffer requirements on the “fair use” provision that governs educational use of materials. As before, copyright materials can be used for educational purposes. But unlike before, there is now a stronger requirement that only students in the class can have access to the materials. Although there are various ways this can be assured, we will adopt the policy that I will not provide any copyright materials on this website, but will instead post links or other information about where you can obtain them legally (e.g., through our library, which will require that you be a student and therefore allowed to access the material). In fact, this requirement goes even for (most of) my own writings, since I do not own the copyright to them—some publishing company owns it.

Furthermore, no required textbook is allowed to be placed on reserve in the library. Only supplementary reading materials. I will be placing

G.N. Carlson & F.J. Pelletier (1995) The Generic Book (Univ. Chicago Press) paperback, ISBN: 0-226-09292-5.

F.J. Pelletier (2009) Kinds, Things and Stuff (Oxford Univ. Press). Hardback ISBN: 978-0-19-538289-1.

P.F. Strawson (1959) Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics (Methuen Press).

on reserve in Rutherford. Note that the Strawson book is available electronically through our library, if you like to read online. Also note that I ordered copies of The Generic Book through the bookstore, as a “recommended text”. If you’re interested in the topic, this book is the standard reference work. You will also want to read about Strawson’s take on sortal terms, characterizing terms, and feature-placing terms. Some applications of this Strawsonian theme can be found in David Wiggins’ Sameness and Substance (1980, Blackwell), especially about identification and re-identification.

I’d like it if you could do some of the “philosophical background” reading soon. By this I mean the introductory chapter of Strawson (above, about the goals, methods, etc., of “descriptive metaphysics”), a work by Emmon Bach (“Natural Language Metaphysics” in R. Barcan Marcus, G. Dorn & P. Weingartner Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science VII, 1986, pp. 573-595. I believe this book is available only at the Math Library in CAB 528 (has short hours). The paper does not seem to be available electronically, but I urge you to read it.

If you find this meta-philosophical stuff interesting, I recommend the Amie Thomasson “Categories” in SEP (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/categories). You might also find some of George Lakoff’s remarks in Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things (1987; Univ. Chicago Press) to be interesting …we will probably come back to this work later.

In connection with some of this stuff, we’re going to be discussing “the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” – sometimes called “linguistic determinism”. Whorf’s articles are collected in Benjamin Whorf (1956) Language, Thought and Reality (MIT Press). There is a “supplementary entry” in the SEP about this: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/relativism/supplement2.html.