Phil 428

Anglo-American Philosophy since 1950

Our last (two) meeting(s)

Tomorrow we will be finishing our discussion of Lecture 2 of Naming and Necessity. I will make some room for questions about the final paper. After that, we will start talking about Lewis. Take a look at Chapter 1 of On the Plurality of Worlds (available in .pdf format in the usual place).

I still haven’t received enough responses about a possible make-up class. Hopefully tomorrow we can find a time that works for all. I hope to see you all tomorrow.

Readings for tomorrow

Remember: tomorrow we’ll discuss Lecture 2 of Naming and Necessity.

Readings for the week of 4/16

Next week we will start our discussion of Kripke, Naming and Necessity. For Monday, please read the first lecture. As I mentioned in class last Wednesday, this is one instance where you really should not leave the reading until the last minute. Start reading as soon as you can.

Note that there will be reading questions due Monday, so that’s another reason to do the readings in advance. The reading question will be posted in the next few hours.

One final note: please remember to fill out the Doodle poll for the make-up class.

Two announcements

(Actually, three announcements.)

First, about next week: We will finish our discussion of Chapter 2 of Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. We will concentrate on his objections to the dispositional account. You may want to re-read pp. 21-36.

If time permits, we will start our discussion of Quine, ‘Reference and Modality’, in From a Logical Point of View, 2nd ed., Cambridge: HUP, 1961. An electronic copy of that paper is available in the Dropbox folder. You may also want to look at Quine, ’Notes on existence and Necessity’, Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 40, No. 5, 1943, pp. 113-127, also available in the Dropbox folder.

This coming Wednesday

For Wednesday you should read the rest of Chapter 2 of Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. An electronic copy is available in the usual place.

Remember that if you are taking the class for credit, you should schedule an appointment to discuss your first paper. If you have not received an email from me with instructions on how to sign up, please let me know.

Readings for 3/21

Following up on the previous post on readings for this coming week: for Wednesday, read Chapter 1 as well as pp. 7-21 of Chapter 2 of Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. An electronic copy is available in the usual place.

Updated reading schedule

As you may have noted, we have departed from the tentative schedule on the syllabus. We have six weeks of class left, so we are going to have to cut a few things from the original schedule. For now, the plan is to follow something like this updated schedule:

Readings for the week of 3/19

We will resume our discussion of Chapter 2 of Word and Object after Spring break. For Monday, re-read §§12-16.

On Wednesday, we will start our discussion of Kripke, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Start by reading the very short first chapter. I will assign selections from Chapter 2 before the end of Spring Break.

Remember that your final draft of the first paper is due on Wednesday.