PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

Wittgenstein and contemporary philosophy of language

The course is scheduled among the Core educational activities shared by Master’s degree programme in Philosophical Sciences and in History of Arts and Conservation of Artistic Heritage.

- Knowledge of the main stages of Wittgenstein's reflections on language and meaning
- Ability to assess the significance and influence of Wittgenstein's writings on language on current debates regarding language and meaning

The course is designed to be accessible to a broad range of students, not just those who intend to major in philosophy.
Albeit not a pre-requisite, having taken an introductory course of philosophy of language in the three-year undergraduate degree and/or having some knowledge of elementary logic can still be helpful to follow the course with profit and awareness

-- Wittgenstein on language I: "Tractatus logico-philosophicus"
- Wittgenstein on language II: middle Wittgenstein
- WIttgenstein on language III: "Philosophical Investigations"
- Wittgensetin and Referentialism
- The Normativity of Meaning
- The Context Principle
- The Social Dimension of Language
- Wittgenstein, Austin and pragmatics
- Semantic Externalism
- Wittgenstein and the Languages of Arts

1) W. Child, Wittgenstein, Routledge, London/New York 2011
2) L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Routledge, London 1976
3) Texts and materials inserted in the Moodle platform at the beginning and during the course

Twoo options: 1) the drafting of a short paper (about 20,000 characters) agreed with the teacher, on a question, a problem, a theme analysed during the course; the deadline to submit the paper is seven days before the exam session; 2) a questionnaire of 10 open questions to be completed in two hours.

The course is arranged into two parts. The first one entails the critical exposition and discussion of the main themes and problems of the course (with the contribution of students’ questions, requests for clarification, objections); in the second part the students will present and discuss the themes and topics chosen for the papers in view of the final written project.

Italian

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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