Преподавател(и):

проф. Димитър Вацов  д-р

Описание на курса:

Компетенции:

Students who complete this course:

1) will know:

• the origins of the contemporary ordinary language philosophy.

• Its further developments.

• Its main concepts and problems.

2) will be able to:

• make ordinary language analysis
Предварителни изисквания:
None

Форми на провеждане:
Редовен

Учебни форми:
Лекция

Език, на който се води курса:
Английски

Теми, които се разглеждат в курса:

1. 1 The linguistic turn in philosophy (the end of 19th century). The first analytic philosophy (Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russel, Ludwig Wittgenstein). Logical analysis. Logical atomism. Ideal language and symbolic logic. Analytic and synthetic statements. Logical positivism (Vienna circle).
2. 2 Second internal turn from analytic to post-analytic philosophy (before and after WWII). The three centers of ordinary-language philosophy and neo-pragmatism: Cambridge (Ludwig Wittgenstein, late years), Oxford (J. L. Austin) and Harvard (W. V. O. Quine).
3. 3 The ordinary-language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein: Language games. Rule-following paradox. Grammatical remarks. Seeing aspects. Lecture
4. 4 Seminar: Selected pages from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and The Blue Book.
5. 5 The ordinary-language philosophy of John Austin: Performatives and constatives. Felicity conditions. Illocutionary force and meaning. Locutions, illocutions and perlocutions.
6. 6 Seminar: J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, ch. 1 and 2.
7. 7 The theory of speech acts: developments and critiques. John Searle’s taxonomy of speech acts. Jacques Derrida: from performative to performance.
8. 8 Seminar: Selected pages from the direct exchange between Searle and Derrida (Derrida, Limited Inc.).
9. 9 The neo-pragmatist turn in USA (W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, Robert Brandom and others). Quine: “The two dogmas of empiricism”. Gavagai. Indeterminacy of meaning and reference. Radical translation. Davidson: “the third dogma”. Radical interpretation.
10. 10 The problem of truth. Deflationist theories. J. L. Austin and P. F. Strawson on truth. W. V. O. Quine and D. Davidson on truth. New readings.
11. 11 Seminar: Selected pages from the direct exchange between J. L. Austin and P. F. Strawson.
12. 12 The debate on the metaphor. The metaphor appears to be neither a substitution (based on likeness) nor an elliptical simile. Nietzsche: the metaphor is a comparison of the incomparables. Davidson: the metaphor cannot be paraphrased hence it has no meaning at all. Rorty: every literal meaning is a dead metaphor killed by the repetition of some paraphrase.
13. 13 Seminar: Donald Davidson, How Metaphors Mean.
14. 14 Seminar: Donald Davidson, A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs.
15. 15 Final remarks: Richard Rorty’s and Stanley Cavell’s attempts at a synthesis ofrdinary-language philosophy as a radical contextualism.

Литература по темите:

(The list that follows is only descriptive and indicative. It does not present literature that will be required for the course.)

Austin, J. L., “Truth”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, The Virtual Issue No. 1, 2013 [originally published in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume XXIV (1950)].

Austin, J. L., How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Cavell, Stanley, The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy (second edition), New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Cavell, Stanley, Must We Mean What We Say? (eighth edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Davidson, Donald, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (Second Edition). CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 2001.

Средства за оценяване:

Mid-term

• Discussion

• Presentation

Final exams

• Term paper