LSA Course Guide

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Class Detail:
WN 2011 Philosophy PHIL 615 - Seminar in Philosophy of Language Section 001
Credits:	3
Waitlist Capacity:	99
Advisory Prerequisites:	Graduate standing.
Repeatability:	May not be repeated for credit.
Primary Instructor:	Gibbard,Allan F
	(real time availability for all sections)

This seminar will center on claims that the concept of meaning is a normative concept, “fraught with ought”—and likewise for the concept of mental content (i.e. of what a person is thinking). A famous instance of the claim is in Kripke’s Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. The seminar will examine what such a claim might mean and reasons for accepting it or rejecting it. It will examine also how far, if the claim is correct, meaning can be characterized in normative terms, and what the upshot is . A draft of a book Thoughts and Oughts: Meaning as a Normative Concept will be distributed. Scrutinizing the draft and the issues discussed in it will be the principal business of the seminar.

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