Winter Quarter 2001. UCSD.
Time: Tu 2:20 - 5:10
Room: HSS 7077
Instructor: Rick Grush (rick@mind.ucsd.edu)
Office Hours: W 2-4, and by appointment.
Office Phone: 822-4440
[ Schedule
]
[ Grades ]
[ Web Resources ]
[ Email list ]
Short Description:
Texts: The required text is Gareth Evans' The Varieties of Reference. Other readings, as listed on the schedule, will be made available either as photocopies in the department library, or electronically on this website.
Structure. We will meet once per week, and will discuss the readings for that week as indicated on the schedule. Except for week one (for which I will take complete responsibility), each week one or more student(s) enrolled in the course will be primarily responsible for leading the discussion on one or more of the week's reading(s).
Enrolled students will give one class presenation, and will write either three short papers or one long seminar paper. Due dates for these papers are listed on the schedule.
Content. The low-precision description is that we will work through the first six chapters of Gareth Evans' The Varieties of Reference (henceforth VR). A higher-precision description is: This course will hopefully be able both to serve as an introduction to some of the central themes in philosophy of language as well as to delve some depth into one of the most important and seminal works in that tradition, Evans' VR. This can be done because Evans' own positive views, which start in earnest in Chapter 6, are built against the backdrop of a canvassing and interpretation of three of the main traditional pillars in semantics: Frege's theory of Sense and Reference, Russell's Theory of Descriptions, and Kripke's 'causal' account. We will take the opportunity to read the original literature in parallel with Evans' discussion in these early chapters. In addition to these texts, we will also read a number of articles and book chapters, all of which are not only intersting in their own right, but which will serve to shed light on Evans project in VR as he develops it.
Two potentially relevant asides. First, we will only be going through the first six chapters of Evans' book. However, if enough students (enough is probably minimally 3 or 4) have the interest, I am happy to run a directed group study seminar in the spring quarter in which the rest of the book (chapters 7-11) and perhaps a few of Evans' other relevant papers are covered. We can revisit this issue towards the end of Winter quarter. Second, I will be taking the opportunity provided by this seminar (and potentially the group in the Spring) to revamp/complete the Guide to Evans' VR, a web-resource I maintain. Guides to Chapters 1 - 3, co-authored with a former student Pete Mandik, are currently up. Mandik has since become too busy to complete this project with me, and so I will be redoing those, and completing the rest of the chapter guides on my own as the seminar proceeds. I plan to ensure that I have the guide for each chapter up before we discuss it in class, and I hope to get feedback from at least some of the seminar participants on this material.
Schedule:
NOTE: This schedule is not complete. Sessions 1-3 are unlikely to be altered, but there will be a few more supplementary readings added to some of the later sessions. I would expect at most 3 or 4 additions (articles or book chapters) to the schedule as it stands, though. Email me for a password for electronic versions of the readings.
Session 01 (01.09.00):
VR: 1.1 - 1.4
Frege: On sense and reference (in library)
Frege: Letter to Jourdain (in library)
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter One of VR.
Session 02 (01.16.00):
VR: 1.5 - 1.9
Russell: Descriptions. (in library)
Russell: Knowledge by acquaintence and knowledge by description. (in library)
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter One of VR.
Session 03 (01.23.00):
VR: 2.1 - 2.5
Kripke: Naming and Necessity (Lecture 2) (in library)
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Two of VR.
Session 04 (01.30.00): Proposal for first short paper due.
VR: 3.1 - 3.a
VR: 11
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Three of VR.
Session 05 (02.06.00): First short paper due.
VR: 4-1 - 4.6
Strawswon: Bodies (Chapter One of Individuals)
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Four of VR.
Session 06 (02.13.00):
VR: 5.1 - 5.a
Strawson: Sounds (Chapter Two of Individuals)
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Five of VR.
Session 07 (02.20.00): Proposal for second short paper due.
Discussion of material from sessions 1-6.
Session 08 (02.27.00): Second short paper due. Proposals for long papers due.
VR: 6.1 - 6.3 (up to the top of page 162)
Perry: The Problem of the Essential Indexical
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Six of VR.
Recommended: Grush: Skill and spatial content.
Session 09 (03.06.00):
VR: 6.3 - 6.5
Perry: Frege on Demonstratives
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Six of VR.
Session 10 (03.13.00): Proposal for third short paper due.
VR: 6.6 - 6.a
Recommended: Grush: Guide to Chapter Six of VR.
March 23: Long paper due. Third short paper due.
Grades:
Final grades will be based on class participation, at least one seminar presentation, and class participation generally. While grading at the graduate level is a very subjective and messy matter, roughly the paper(s) will count for 50%, participation about 30%, and presentation about 20%.
In any case, I will not be granting any incompletes, except in cases of genuine need such as serious medical events, etc. While I think it is possible to write an interesting, original paper on time in a quarter-length seminar, I realize that the time constraints do make writing polished papers difficult, and I will certainly be taking this into consideration when grading them. What I do expect (this is mostly directed at those students who choose to write a single long seminar paper) is a paper that exhibits a good grasp of the relevant material we covered in the seminar, that has an original idea, whether constructive or critical, and develops and defends it in a philosophically responsible way. What I don't expect (because of the time constraints imposed by quarters) is a paper that is completely polished and is a masterpiece of philosophy.
Papers:
Students can either write one large (18-30 page) end-of-term seminar paper, or can write three smaller (7-9 page) papers throughout the class. My recommendation would be for students who are unfamilair with philosophy of language to give serious consideration to writing the shorter papers. Deadlines for short and long papers are listed on the schedule.
For the short papers, students are required to give me (preferably via email), a paragraph explaining what they want to write on. The purpose of this is to save you from dead-end projects, and to give me an opportunity to make suggestions that might be of help. These are due a week before the short paper is due. Students are also encouraged to turn them in earlier if possible, and also to see me in office hours either before or after giving me the proposal to talk with me about it in person, but this is not required.
For the long paper, students are required to give me (preferably via email) a paper proposal of about one or two pages in length that goes into some nontrivial detail about the thesis and structure of the proposed paper. For longer papers I strongly encourage students to see me in office hours either before or after (or both) turning in the proposal to discuss the paper in person.
Presentations:
Every student enrolled for credit is required to lead the discussion on at least one of the readings. Typically this will involve giving a brief symopsis of the main point and argumentative structure of the reading, and by identifying and expanding upon one or more particularly interesting or troublesome parts of the reading and getting discussion going on it. While this is not required, I encourage students to meet with me before they give their presentation to discuss the reading with me, and their ideas for presenting it.
Web Resources:
Rick Grush's guide to Gareth Evans' The Varieties of Reference. This is a web resource designed to help people follow Evans' text. I will be redoing this resource as the course progresses.The Philosophy of Gareth Evans. Special Issue of the Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy, volume 6. The introduction to this volume by the guest editor (me) might be of some interest, as it provides some biographical infomration about Evans as well as an overview of his theories.
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