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Home , Naming and Necessity, Norman Malcolm, Saul Kripke

428: Anglo- Since 1950 http://dornsife.usc.edu/scottsoames Spring 2021

Overview The course is an introduction to the most important works of in the last half of the twentieth century. It develops, through a sequence of intensive historical case studies, a coherent picture of what has been accomplished, what remains to be done, and where we are heading in philosophy. Required Work Two 1500 word analyses of selected philosophical texts (end of weeks 4, 12) One mid-term quiz (end of week 8) One end-of-term quiz (end of week 15) One 2000 - 3000 word term paper (in lieu of final exam) Grading The term paper constitutes 40 % of the final grade, the quizzes and analyses 20% each – with your lowest quiz or analysis excluded in computing the final grad for the course. Analyses submitted on that receive low grades may, after consultation, be rewritten once (within 1 week of their return), for a maximum grade of B+. Deadlines will be enforced by marking down late papers 1/3 of a grade point (e.g. from B+ to B, B to B-, or B- to C+) for each 24 hour-period of lateness (including weekends and holidays). Texts , Philosophical Investigations -- PI , Dilemmas Gilbert Ryle, The of R. M. Hare, The of Morals -- LOM Pamela Hieronymi, Freedom and Resentment and the of Morals -- F&R , Studies in the Way of Words -- SWW J. L. Austin, Sense and Sensibilia -- S&S W. V. O. Quine, Word and -- W&O Donald Davidson, Inquiries into and Interpretation -- ITI , -- N&N Scott Soames, in the Twentieth Century, Volume 2 -- PATC Scott Soames, Philosophical Essays Volumes 1 and 2 -- PE1 PE2

Course Outline The course covers the period starting with Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and continuing through Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity. Topics will include the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein, the ordinary language school of Gilbert Ryle, John L. Austin, Peter Strawson, Richard M. Hare, and , the criticism of this school by , , and Paul Grice, the arguments for distinguishing from use, Quine's and about meaning, Davidson's attempt to avoid that criticism be constructing a genuine theory of meaning, and Kripke's reconceptualization of fundamental semantic and philosophical categories. The period begins with two leading of the Philosophical Investigations. The first is that philosophical problems arise from the misuse of language. The job of the philosopher is dissolve problems by exposing the linguistic confusions that fooled us into thinking there were genuine difficulties to begin with. The second was that meaning itself -- the key to philosophical progress -- is not to be studied from a scientific or theoretical perspective. Rather, philosophers are to attend to subtle aspects of language use, and to show how misuse of language leads to philosophical confusion. So we have at the outset a remarkable combination of views: all philosophy depends on a proper understanding of meaning, but there is no systematic theory of meaning, or method of studying it, other than by assembling observations about the use of philosophically significant words in ordinary situations. Not surprisingly, this combination of views proved to be unstable. There are too many factors in addition to meaning that influence how words are used in order for us to draw philosophically useful conclusions from piecemeal observations about use. What is needed is a systematic theory of what meaning is, and how it interacts with other factors governing language use. This gradually emerged from the problems encountered by ordinary-language philosophers. Two milestones were the theory by John L. Austin, and the work on conversational implicature by Paul Grice. At this point, philosophers who were convinced that philosophical problems are linguistic in came to recognize that they needed a systematic theory of meaning. Still, it was unclear what such a theory should look like. Skepticism about this was fueled by W.V. Quine in Word and Object, and Ontological Relativity, which reject our ordinary notions of meaning and reference as scientifically hopeless, and propose radically deflated substitutes. But his wasn't the only voice. In the sixties Donald Davidson introduced theories of meaning as a systematic theories of the truth conditions of their sentences. To many, this seemed like just what the doctor ordered, even though the conception of meaning employed was a descendant of theories of meaning in formal that ordinary language philosophers had previously rejected. But the story wasn't over. Shortly thereafter Saul Kripke exploded the idea that all philosophical problems are simply problems. of linguistic analysis. Thus, the mid-twentieth century philosophical infatuation with language came to an ironic end. It started with the conviction that all philosophical problems are linguistic confusions to be resolved by understanding meaning. Eventually it was realized that a theory of meaning is required. This led to the acceptance of a logically and scientifically inspired theory of meaning, which, despite its shortcomings, was a real advance. Then, in the wake of this achievement, it was shown that no how valuable an informative theory of meaning may be, it is a mistake to suppose that it resolves our most basic philosophical problems. That is the road we will travel. Along the way, we will investigate how leading philosophers applied different analytic methods to age-old philosophical problems about mind and body, skepticism, , , truth, goodness, meaning, necessity, and apriority.

Schedule Weeks 1-2 The Later Wittgenstein Wittgenstein: PI (sections 1-133, 143-155, 179-202, 243-268, 293-315); Strawson, "Critical Notice of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations,” in Pitcher, Wittgenstein, and in Mind, 63, 1954 (available on jstor); A. J. Ayer, "Can There be a Private Language?" in Pitcher, and in Proceedings of Aristotelian Society, Supl. Vol. 28, 1954 (available on jstor); Soames, chapters 1 and 2 PATC.

2 Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: (i) Paul Horwich, “Soames’s Interpretation of the Philosophical Investigations, 2006 Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, Author Meets Critics Symposium, xerox available from instructor; Soames, “Reply to Critics of Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century (section replying to Horwich), 2006, Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, available on web site. (ii) Saul Kripke, Wittgenstein: On Rules and Private Language, (Harvard, 1982); George Wilson, “Kripke on Wittgenstein and Normativity,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 19, 366-90; Soames, “Skepticism about Meaning: Indeterminacy, Normativity, and the Rule-Following Paradox,” and “Facts, Truth Conditions, and the Skeptical Solution to the Rule-following Paradox,” reprinted in Soames, PE2; available on web site. Week 3 Pseudo Problems Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas -- Essays 1, 2, 5, 7; Soames, chapter 3 of Philosophical Analysis Vol. 2. Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: Michael Kremer, “The Good of Philosophical History,” 2006 Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, Author Meets Critics Symposium, copy available from instructor; Soames, “Reply to Critics of PATC (section replying to Kremer), 2006, Pacific Division Meetings of the APA, available on web site. Week 4 The Mind Gilbert Ryle: The Concept of Mind -Chapters 1, 2, 4; Soames, chapter 4 of PATC. Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: Brian Weatherson, “Doing Philosophy with Words,” Philosophical Studies, 2007, 135: 429-438, available online; Soames, “What we know now that we didn’t know then: Reply to critics of The Age of Meaning (section replying to Weatherson, 461-467), Philosophical Studies, 2007, 135: 461-478, available online. Weeks 5-6 Truth, Goodness, and Responsibility P.F. Strawson: "Truth”; Analysis, 9, 1949 (jstor); Soames chapter 5 of Philosophical Analysis. J.L. Austin: "Performative Utterances," available online. P.F. Strawson: "Freedom and Resentment", reprinted in F&R Pamela Hieronymi, Freedom and Resentment and the Metaphysics of Morals, chapter 1 R. M. Hare: The Language of Morals chapters 5 – 8; Soames, chapter 6 of PATC Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics F&R, chapters 2-4. Weeks 7-8 Skepticism and Knowledge Norman Malcolm: "Moore and Ordinary Language" in The Philosophy of G.E. Moore, Vol 1, P.A. Schilpp, ed.; Soames, chapter 7 PATC J. L. Austin, S&S; A. J. Ayer, “Has Austin Refuted the Sense-Datum Theory?" in Metaphysics and ; Soames, chapter 8 of PATC. Recommended for possible further Study, including possible term paper topics: Brian Weatherson, “Doing Philosophy with Words,” Philosophical Studies, 2007, 135: 429-438, available online; Soames, “What we know now that we didn’t know then: Reply to critics of The Age of Meaning,” (section replying to Weatherson, 461-467), Philosophical Studies, 2007, 135: 461-478, available online.

3 Week 9 The between Use and Meaning: The Need for Systematic Theory Paul Grice, "Prolegomena", "Logic and Conversation", and "Further Notes on Logic and Conversation" in SWW; Soames, chapter 9 of PATC Weeks 10-11 The Assault on Meaning and Reference W. V. O. Quine, chapter 2 of W &O; Michael. Friedman, " and the Indeterminacy of Translation," Nous 9, 1975 (jstor); Soames, Chapter 10 of PATC; selections from Quine, “Ontological Relativity”; Soames, chap. 11, PATC. Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: (i) Soames, section IV (357-370) of “The Indeterminacy of Translation and the Inscruitability of Reference,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 1999, 29: 321-370; Weeks 12 How to Study Meaning and Truth Donald Davidson, "Truth and Meaning" (1967) in Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation; Soames, chapter 12 of PATC; Soames, “Truth and Meaning: In Perspective,” PE1, available on web site. Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: James Higginbotham, “Truth and Understanding,” Philosophical Studies, 1992, 65: 3-16; Davidson, “On Saying That” (1968), “Reply to Forster (1976), “ without Reference,” (1977), all reprinted in ITI. Weeks 13-15 Language, the Intelligibility of Metaphysics, Mind-Body , the Necessary Aposteriori, and the Contingent Apriori Saul Kripke, N&N; Soames, chapters 14-17 of PATC; Soames, “The Philosophical Significance of the Kripkean Necessary Aposteriori,” in PE2, available on web site. Recommended for possible further study, including possible term paper topics: (i) Soames, “Actually,” reprinted in PE2, and available on web site. (ii) Soames “What are Natural Kinds?” in PE2 and available on web site. (iii) Soames, “Kripke on Epistemic and Metaphysical Possibility,” in Analytic Philosophy in America, and available on web site. (iv) Kripke, “A Puzzle about ,” in Philosophical Troubles (v) Chapter 4 of Soames, Rethinking Language, Mind, and Meaning, available on web site.

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