Class Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11.30 am
Instructor: Gillian Russell
Location: Seminar Room, Wilson Hall
My office: 209 Wilson Hall
Office hours: Thursdays 3-4pm and by appointment
Email: grussell - at - wustl - dot - edu
E-reserves site for this course: http://eres.wustl.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=2066
Course Website: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~grussell/Phil4065.html
The idea behind this course is to focus on topics in the philosophy of language that presuppose some technical knowledge in the philosophy of language and logic. We will study both the technical apparatus and the philosophical issues, and assessment will be by way of problem sets and philosophical writing.
Our main piece of technical apparatus will be first order modal logic, and the main philosophical issues will be i) modality, ii) relativism and iii) vagueness.
Prereqs: PHIL 301 or its equivalent, graduate standing, or permission of the instructor.
If you decide to take this seminar it would be worth purchasing copies of the following texts:
First Order Modal Logic , Fitting and Mendelsohn
Vagueness: A Reader, Keefe and Smith
There is some additional background reading on e-res, which you might like to take a look at if you are interested.
Introduction to tense logic. No pre-assigned reading. Suggested further reading: "Basic Tense Logic", John Burgess (on e-res)
Models for "propositional" modal logics. Pages 1-18 of Fitting and Mendelsohn.
Varieties of modal logics. Pages 19-24 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
Logical consequence. Some notes on tense logic and epistemic logic. Pages 25-34 of Fitting and Mendelsohn.
Last minute help session for problem set 1: my office, Friday 26th, 10am.
(Problem set 1 due Friday 26th January.)
Some philosophical applications. Pages 35-45 of Fitting and Mendelsohn.
Tableau proofs. Pages 46-56 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
Soundness and completeness for tableaux. Pages 57-66 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
Axiomatic proof systems. Pages 67-74 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
Last minute help session for problem set 2: my office, Friday 9th February at 10am.
(Problem set 2 due Friday 9th February)
Soundness and completeness for axiomatic systems. Pages 75-80 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
"Three Degrees of Modal Involvement" - Quine
No class. But you should read Quine's "Reference and Modality" over the week, and we'll schedule an informal discussion of it for when I get back from Banff.
No class.
(Problem set 3 due Monday 26th February.)
Chapter 1 of Counterfactuals, David Lewis (on e-res)
Selections from Bennett's book Conditionals (to be assigned later)
Quantified modal logic. Pages 81- 92 of Fitting and Mendelsohn
Constant domain models. Pages 92-101 of Fitting and Mendelsohn.
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
Varying domain models. Pages 101-115 of Fitting and Mendelsohn. Recommended extra reading: "Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic", S. Kripke, Acta Philosophical Fennica, vol. 16 (1963)
Monotonicity and the Barcan Formulas
Quinus ab omni naevo vindicatus - John P. Burgess in Meaning and Reference, edited by Ali Kazmi, Canadian Jounral of Philosophy, supplementary volume 25, 1997 Pages: 25-65
"Can there be vague objects?" - Gareth Evans (K&S)
"Vague Identity: Evans Misunderstood" - David Lewis (K&S)
Last minute help session for problem set 4: my office, Friday 30th March at 10am.
Problem set 4 due Friday 30th March.
"Worldly Indeterminacy of Identity" - Terrance Parsons and Peter Woodruff (K&S)
No class
"Vagueness, Truth and Logic"- Kit Fine (K&S)
"Gap Principles, Penumbral Consequence" - Delia Graff in Liars and Heaps: New Essays on Paradox edited by JC Beall, OUP (Oxford, 2003)
Pages 481-527 of "Demonstratives" - David Kaplan in Themes from Kaplan (on e-res)
Pages 541- 553 of "Demonstratives" - David Kaplan in Themes from Kaplan (on e-res). Recommended extra reading: "Two Notions of Necessity", Davies and Humberstone (on e-res)
"Making Sense of Relativism about Truth" - John MacFarlane (on e-res)
"Future Contingents and Relativism about Truth" - John MacFarlane (on e-res)
Also recommended: "Conditionals and Relativism" - Brian Weatherson, presented at the 1st online philosophy conference.
Assessment is by way of problem sets and one paper. 50% of your grade for the class will be calculated by averaging your grade (in percent) from your best three of the four problem sets. (That means that although you have to do all four problem sets, your worst score won't count.) The other 50% of your grade will be based on a research paper of around 3000 words (max 5000 words), due on the last day of classes. Research papers should consist in the defence of an original contribution to the literature on the topics we discuss.
Much of the material we will be covering is difficult and technical, and it will no doubt be easier for someone who has done similar things before. But everyone who eventually masters this material once approached it for the first time. If you find that you are continually lost, come and see me early on (because later material presupposes a grasp of the earlier stuff) and we'll try to work out what you're missing and a way to get you back on track.
Any cases of suspected plagiarism, or other problems with academic integrity, will be reported to the Dean in his role as head of the academic integrity committee, with the recommendation that, if found guilty, the student fail the course.