PHIL 222 - Philosophy of Language

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2015/16b: Language is our primary means of expressing our thoughts. Language is also one of our primary means of representing the world. As a result, philosophers in the analytic tradition have attempted to gain a better understanding of standard philosophical issues through the study of how we understand and use language to express our thoughts, communicate, and represent the world. We will look at the philosophical study of meaning and truth as well as the philosophical problems that such studies purport to illuminate, solve, or dissolve. We will discuss theories of meaning that seek to identify meanings as items in the world, as abstract concepts, as psychological ideas, as social rules of interaction, and we will link these theories to metaphysical and epistemological questions. Mr. Lam.

Prerequisite: one 100-level course in Philosophy.

Two 75-minute periods.