PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (ADVANCED COURSE)
- Academic year
- 2024/2025 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- FILOSOFIA DEL LINGUAGGIO SP.
- Course code
- FM0090 (AF:512448 AR:290231)
- Modality
- On campus classes
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Degree level
- Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
- Educational sector code
- M-FIL/05
- Period
- 3rd Term
- Course year
- 1
Contribution of the course to the overall degree programme goals
Expected learning outcomes
1) Knowledge and understanding:
- knowoledge of the classics of the discipline as well as of the main figures of the contemporary debate;
- understanding of both traditional and contemporary key texts of the discipline;
- knowledge and understanding of specialized issues that have characterized the evolution of the philosophy of language in the shift from the traditional reflection on linguistic signs to the formal approach developed by contemporary analytic philosophy.
2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- development of an independent approach and a criticial-constructive attitude towards the great philosophical-linguistic questions;
- ability to produce sound arguments to support a claim;
- ability to use example and counterexamples;
- ability to distinguish the main theoretical options concerning a given philosophical-linguistic issue.
3) Judgment ability:
- ability to establish links between (apparently different or unrelated) topics and positions;
- ability to evaluate the consistency and plausibility of a given philosophical-linguistic claim, also by considering examples and counterexamples;
- ability to grasp and develop the theoretical and practical implications of the different philosophical options available.
Pre-requirements
Contents
- What is fiction?
- What is the nature of fictional objects and characters?
- Does it make any sense to talk of truth and falsity with reference to fiction?
- How can the theoretical investigation of fiction contribute to our understanding of the nature of language?
Referral texts
A.G. BAUMGARTEN, “Estetica”, Aesthetica Edizioni 2020, pp. 174-213.
A.G. BAUMGARTEN, “Riflessioni sulla poesia”, Aesthetica Edizioni 2020: only the passages indicated by the lecturer.
M.J. CRESSWELL, "Possible Worlds", in "Studia poetica", 2, pp. 6-16.
G. FREGE, “Senso, funzione e concetto. Scritti filosofici”, a cura di C. Penco e E. Picardi, Laterza 2005: only pp. 32-57 (“Senso e significato) and 112-144 (“Logica”).
S. KRIPKE, "Reference and Existence", Oxford UP 2013.
G.W. LEIBNIZ, “Essays on Theodicy": First Part (only §§ 1-10), Second Part (only §§ 168-174), and Third Part (only §§ 405-417).
D. LEWIS, “Truth in Fiction”, American Philosophical Quarterly 15 (1978), pp. 37-46.
K. WALTON, “Mimesis as Make-Believe”, Harvard University Press 1990 (only selected chapters)
Optional readings:
AA. VV., "Do Ficta Follow Fiction?", special issue of "Dialectica", 57/2 (2003): https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40115360
E.J. ASHWORTH, "Chimeras and Imaginary Objects: A Study in the Post-Medieval Theory of Signification", in "Vivarium" 15 (1977), pp. 57-79.
G. CURRIE, “The Nature of Fiction”, Cambridge University Press 1990.
G. FREGE, "Il pensiero", in Frege, "Ricerche logiche", Guerini 1988.
L. DOLEZEL, "Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds", John Hopkins UP, 1998.
G.W. LEIBNIZ, "L'armonia delle lingue", a cura di S. Gensini, Laterza.
G.W. LEIBNIZ, "Scritti di logica", a cura di F. Barone, Laterza.
G. SPOLAORE, "Logos in fabula. Un'indagine filosofica sui personaggi letterari", Mimesis 2009.
P. VAN INWAGEN, “Creatures of Fiction”, American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (1977), pp. 299-308.