Course Syllabus

Syllabus-2.pdf

Language as a Public Manifestation of Thought

What makes a series of sounds into a meaningful sentence? What is the connection between words and the objects in the world to which they refer? What is the relationship between words and thoughts in our head? Is the truth of our utterances determined by the world or by social conventions? This course will introduce you to the ways in which philosophers have attempted to provide us with answers to  these types of questions. 

These questions have been asked since antiquity, and we will trace their starting point in Plato’s philosophy. However, a systematic examination of these questions emerged in twentieth-century analytic philosophy. Some lamented and some lauded this shift of focus to language; nevertheless, understanding the central issues in the philosophy of language is indispensable for engaging with contemporary analytic philosophy.

A key part of this development is a famous puzzle introduced by Frege, which we will explore in depth. Hesperus, the evening star, is in fact identical to Phosphorus, the morning star. But not everyone knows this. So, some might believe that Hesperus is Hesperus without accepting that Hesperusis Phosphorus. How can this be? If Hesperus and Phosphorus are one and the same, should they not share all properties? And if they do, then does not this include the property of being believed to be a certain way?

Frege’s semantic theory sets the stage for further challenging puzzles that Bertrand Russell would take up and explore in depth. Russell’s work on these philosophical puzzles probes deeper into the complex relationship between words, our thoughts, and the objects they refer to. We will examine Russell’s significant contributions, especially his theory of descriptions and denotation.

Following Russell’s significant contributions, the course will turn to the revolutionary ideas of Saul Kripke and Keith Donnellan. Kripke moves away from the traditional descriptivist framework, proposing instead that names are tied to their referents through a causal chain of reference transmission. In parallel, the course will also explore Keith Donnellan’s contributions, particularly his work on the distinction between referential and attributive uses of descriptions. Donnellan focused on how the speaker’s intentions and the context influence the meaning of their utterances.

The course will then turn to the exploration of semantic anti-individualism. Putnam, through imaginative thought experiments like "Twin Earth", argues that meanings are not a mere product of one’s internal mental state but depend on their external environment. Tyler Burge further develops this idea, emphasizing the role of social and environmental factors in shaping the meanings of words and thoughts. The meaning is still "in the head", but in most cases, an individual’s mental states—beliefs and thoughts— are not self-contained entities, wholly decipherable through introspection. Instead, these mental states are fundamentally intertwined with and depend constitutively on the relations between the individual’s mind and its external environment.

By engaging with these philosophical questions and puzzles, this course’s aim is to examine the dynamic and interconnected nature of language, thought, and the world we live in.