PHIL 310 - Seminar in Analytic Philosophy

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2016/17a: The Metaphysics of Social Reality. Unlike simple physical things such as mountains and oceans, social reality is deeply dependent on human thought and action for its existence. Social institutions such as money, governments, and languages may exert a lot of influence on our lives, but they are quite fragile in the sense that they would crumble if we all stopped buying into them. To explore the simultaneous strength and fragility of social reality, we study accounts of social conventions, social norms, and social institutions offered by authors such as John Searle, Seumas Miller, Ruth Garrett Millikan, David Lewis, and Cristina Bicchieri. We consider issues such as whether the existence of a social convention must be common knowledge among its participants, whether social norms can exist even if no one ever conforms to them, and whether social institutions are constituted by conventions and social norms or by speech acts. By the end of the semester we are able to apply theoretical work about social reality to real-world social institutions and to issues that arise in the context of those institutions, such as institutional corruption and institutional oppression. Students are expected to participate regularly in class discussions, give an oral presentation, and complete substantial writing assignments that demonstrate an ability to apply and evaluate the theories we discuss. Megan Stotts.

One 3-hour period.