The Philosophy of Language Workshop meets most quarters on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM in the Philosophy Common Room (Dodd 399). Officially this is a graduate course, but most attendees are not enrolled -- participants are mostly faculty and graduate students from graduate programs in Philosophy or Linguistics within driving distance of UCLA, and others who are visiting the area. All faculty and graduate students are welcome. Topics vary from quarter to quarter, and sometimes during the quarter. Sometimes a departmental colloquium speaker is enticed into leading a workshop discussion. The format is usually informal, with ample discussion. (Sometimes people try to present material in an organized fashion, and sometimes they are somewhat successful.) Topics vary from general to technical.
There are two email lists for the Philosophy of Language Workshop.
LangWork-L
is for daily and weekly messages sent to current participants in the workshop.
If you are on this list you may/will get lots of routine messages.
You may put yourself on or take yourself off this list at: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/langwork-l
LangWorkQuarter-L
is for quarterly announcements about the workshop activities in the coming quarter.
If you are on this list you should get one message per quarter. If you
are on the LangWork-L list there is no reason to use this list as well. You
may put yourself on or take yourself off this list at: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/langworkquarter-l
Winter 2007
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
Medieval Semantics
The first session is on Wednesday, Jan 10.
Terry Parsons will discuss some of the Aristotelian background for Medieval Semantics.
Reading is optional. Some of the relevant sources are:Selections from Aristotle's On Interpretation - - - It will suffice to read sections 1-7. Or just read section 7.
Selections from Aristotle's Prior Analytics - - - It will suffice to read sections 1, 2, 4, 5. Especially 1 and 2.Parsons' written material on Sessions 1 and 2
Session 2 - - Wed Jan 17
Parsons on the Square of Opposition
Ockham on truth conditions
Sherwood on Propositions and Oppositions
Sherwood on ConversionsSession 3 - - Wed Jan 24
Parsons on Expanding Categorical Propositions
Session 4 - - Wed Feb 7
Parsons on Signification and Supposition
Parsons on Types of Supposition
Parsons on Ampliation and RestrictionSession 5- - Wed Feb 14
Continue Ampliation and Restriction, and
Parsons on Modes of SuppositionSession 6 - - Wed Feb 21
No new reading
*****Wed Feb 28****** NO MEETING
Session 7 - - Wed Mar 7
Meeting DeMorgan's Challenge! We'll review some principles of inference, and then respond to DeMorgan's challenge by showing how to derive "Every horse's head is an animal's head' from 'Every horse is an animal'.
If time permits we'll talk about improving the theory of modes of supposition, in this.
Fall 2006
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
The workshop topic was Kripke's "A Puzzle about Belief"
Spring 2006
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
Material for the workshop will be posted at ecampus. The guest login and password are both "workshop".
Winter 2006
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
(We continue to meet this coming Wednesday, Feb 8.
We will not meet on the following Wednesday, Feb 15.
After that, we go back to our regular meetings on Wednesday afternoons)
In Winter Quarter we continue the discussion from the Fall. Our principal reading is:
David Kaplan: "Reading "On Denoting" on its Centenary"
On Wednesday Jan 25 Richard Mendelsohn spoke on "Propositions and Scope". The paper bears on the Russell material that we are reading.
Fall 2005
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
The topic for the quarter will be Frege's notions of incompleteness and saturation in linguistic expressions and functions.
David Kaplan: Reading "On Denoting" on its Centenary and Outline
Russell Foundations of Logic (1903-1905), ed. by Urquhart, Table of Contents
Russell at UCLA photograph
Frege, On Concept and Object
Frege, Grundgesetze (sections 1-11,21, 26-31)
Frege, Function and Concept
Furth, Introduction to translation of Grundgesetze (sections 3,4,6)There is further copyrighted material available at the electronic archive (login required).
Fall 2004
Russell's "On Denoting"
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
Russell's "Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description"
Spring 2004
Continuation of Winter Quarter; exact topics to be determined
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
Reconsider the argument from Burge 1979. Handout MSWord file -- PDF file
A "Russellization" of the Fregean semantics without a hierarchy. Draft
Nathan Salmon -- Three Proofs of the Hierarchy
Nathan Salmon -- Short Proofs of the Hierarchy
Nathan Salmon -- Handout on Bondage
Participants should self-enroll in the LangWork-L mailing list -- see below.
Winter 2004
The Fregean Hierarchy of Indirect Sense
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
The topic for Winter quarter will be semantics in the Fregean tradition, focusing on the nature of Frege’s hierarchies of indirect sense. Included will be discussion of theories of truth, of meaning, and of logic. Graduate students will lead discussion on some of the readings.
Tentative Readings and Topics:
Some of these files are in "late-model" pdf format . If you have difficulty reading them, you should update your Adobe reader. This can be done quickly and at no cost here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Frege: Function and Concept
Frege, portions of On Sense and Reference <translates 'bedeuten' as 'signify'>. Presenter: Mandel Cabrera
1902 letter from Frege to Russell Presenter: Terry Parsons
Parsons "Frege's Hierarchies of Indirect Sense and the Paradox of Analysis," Midwest Studies in Philosophy VI, 1981, 37-57. Presenter: Carla Valenzuela
Burge “Frege and the Hierarchy,” Synthese 40, 1979, 304-23. <Pages 272 and 273 are misplaced to the end> Presenter: Timothy Doyle
Russell's Gray's Elegy discussion in "On Denoting". Presenter: Nathan Salmon
Handout on Russell's argument
Salmon's interpretation of Burge's argument
Salmon's "On Designating"A new paper by Tyler: Postscript to Frege and the Hierarchy Presenter: Tyler Burge
Burge: Further Remarks on Exportation and Existential Generalization from Embedded Contexts
Burge: Workshop RepriseParsons "No Hierarchy -- Part I" = Approximately first half of original paper
Parsons "No Hierarchy -- Part II" = Approximately second half of original paper (revised near the end)
Fall 2003
Lecture I of Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity
Wednesdays 3-6 in Dodd 399
Discussion for Phil 196 on Fridays 2-3
