PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE I

The course introduces students to the main topics and problems at stake in contemporary philosophy of language. It starts with Frege's distinction between Sinn and Bedeutung to then proceed with some of the most relevant contributions to the discussion around the notion of linguistic meaning (Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Austin, Grice, Putnam, Putnam, Kripke, Donnellan, Dummett)

- Knowledge of the main themes of contemporary philosophy of language. The themes will be considered in connection both with (a) the ways in which the philosophical tradition has addressed the problem of language and with (b) the approaches and results of current scientific research on language and on languages informed by linguistics, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, etc.
- Mastery of the terminology, concepts and argumentative methods currently adopted by philosophical-linguistic research.
- Ability to analyze some of the key texts of the contemporary philosophy of language.
- Ability to critically interpret everyday linguistic and communicative phenomena.

Being an introductory module, it does not require any specific prerequisites.
A knowledge of elementary logic (propositional and predicate calculus) could still be helpful.

_ Sense and reference (Frege)
- Russell's theory of definite description
- Sense and truth (Wittgenstein and "Tractatus logico-philosophicus")
- Meaning and use (Wittgenstein and "Philosophical Investigations")
- The causal theory of reference (Kripke)
- The meaning of "meaning" (Putnam)
- Truth and meaning (Davidson)
- Realism and antirealism (Dummett)
- Language and speech acts (Austin)
- The conversational implicatures (Grice)
- Indexical and semantic contextualism

1. Arguing about Language, edited by D. Byrne and Max Koelbel, Routledge, London 2010
2. G. Kemp, What is this thing called Philosophy of Language, Routledge, London/New York 2013

Learning will be verified through a questionnaire of 10 open questions to be completed in two hours.
The questionnaire can be analyzed and discussed with the lecturer.

The course lecturer will explain the main topics, contents, etc. object of the course during the teaching sessions.
Students will be solicited to intervene with questions, requests for clarification, objections. Furthermore, they will be invited to identify possible answers to the problems under discussion, to produce arguments and to find good examples.

Italian

A seminar will be held by a Ph.D. student, concerning classic themes and authors of linguistic pragmatics

Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Ca' Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

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