History of Honours Course 2016-7

Lecture: Time: Monday 12.10-13.00

Honours Tutorial: Tutorial 1: Monday 14.10-15.00 Tutorial 2: Monday 15.10-16.00

Instructor: Bryan Pickel Office: Room 4.04b, Dugald Stewart Building Office-hours: Wednesday 3-5

Course Description:

Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, a rich and influential tradition known as Analytic Philosophy emerged, which became predominate style of philosophy in the English speaking world. In this course, we will look at the early history of this movement, as reflected in the works of Frege, Russell, and Moore. This tradition emerged from two trends. One trend was a rejection of the idealism that had become popular in philosophy in the 19th century. Idealism holds that the world is somehow dependent on our conception of it. Frege, Russell, and Moore each developed frameworks according which the world is objective, and is not altered by what we think about it. The other major trend was that philosophers sought to apply developments in and the study of language to traditional philosophical problems. Difficulties in understanding the foundations of mathematics led Frege and Russell to develop rigorous new ways of thinking about logic and language. These tools form the foundation of many developments in contemporary logic and linguistics. But Frege and Russell went beyond the investigation of logic, mathematics, and language. We will see how these tools were put to use in understanding the structure of human thought and the world it represents, and in resolving scientific puzzles.

Course Summary:

This course will cover the philosophical climate in which Frege, Moore, and Russell developed, their views on traditional philosophical issues, and the distinctive debates that arose within the emerging tradition.

Midterm Essay Topics: Write an essay responding to ONE of the following essay prompts. You may write an essay on an alternative topic provided you have permission in advance.

1. Frege says that certain entities and truths are objective. What does he mean by objective? Picking one kind of entity (one domain of truths), what argument does he give that these are objective? How might someone resist his conclusions?

1 2. Frege claims that numbers are objects. What does this mean? What could numbers be, in Frege’s ontology, other than objects? How does Frege argue for this conclusion? How does the structure of language figure in this argument? Is his argument successful? 3. In Foundations of Arithmetic §65, Frege explores the possibility that the sentence “line a is parallel to line b” has the same meaning as the sentence “the direction of line a is identical with the direction of line b” in order to explain our knowledge of facts about directions. Frege later draws a distinction between two kinds of meaning: reference and sense. In order to explain our knowledge of facts about directions, should Frege hold that these two sentences have the same reference or the same sense? Are there difficulties with either approach?

Essays Meetings

The essays topics are listed on the syllabus but students are also free to write on other topics if they have consulted with me. I would like to meet with each student during Week 4 to discuss your midterm essay plans and during Week 8 to discuss your final essay plans. I will set up a poll during which time you can book a meeting. In order to meet, you must either have a draft or you must complete an outline. I will make forms available for the outline.

Peer Feedback

For the final essay, I will attempt to arrange peer feedback groups comprising 4 people for those interested. The idea would be that the group members exchange outlines and then have a group meeting to discuss what they like and what confused them. The students would then be encouraged to exchange drafts of your papers.

Final Essays Topics: To be announced.

Schedule:

Week 1 Core Readings: • Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, (J. L. Austin Translation. ) • Introduction, and §§1-28. Main focus: the introduction and §§21-28. Background Reading: • Weiner, Frege, Oxford University Press (1999). Chapters 1-2. • Blanchette, Frege's Conception of Logic, Chapter 1 • Zalta, Edward, SEP entry on "Gottlob Frege": http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege/

Advanced Reading

2 • Hacking, The Social Construction of What? • Diaz-Leo (2013), “What is a Social Construction”, The European Journal of Philosophy • Einheuser (2006), “Counterconventional Conditionals”, Philosophical Studies

Week 2 Core Readings: • Frege, “On Function and Concept” • Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, §§46-48, §§55-57 Background Reading: • Frege, “Concept and Object” • Weiner, Joan: Frege, Chapters 3 Advanced Reading: • Dummett, Michael: Frege: Philosophy of Language, Chapter 2 • Russell, Bertrand: Appendix A to the Principles of Mathematics Week 3 Core Readings: • Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, §§55-67 Advanced Reading: • Wright, Frege’s Conception of Numbers as Objects • Dummett, Frege: Philosophy of Mathematics • Rosen, “A Refutation of Nominalism(?)”. Philosophical Topics 21 (2):141--86.

Week 4 Core Reading: • Frege, G.: “Sense and Reference” Background Reading: • Frege, G.: “Thoughts” • Weiner, Joan: Frege, Chapters 5 and 6 • Soames, Scott: The Philosophy of Language, §1.1 • Selections from Frege, G. Philosophical and Mathematical Correspondence (1980) Advanced Reading: • Blanchette, Patricia: Frege’s Conception of Logic, Chapter 2. • Dummett,, Michael: Frege: Philosophy of Language, Chapters 5-6. • Burge, Tyler: “Sinning Against Frege” • Bell, David: “Thoughts”

Week 5 Core Reading:

3 • Moore, G. E.: “Defense of Common Sense” Background Reading: • Malcolm, Norman (“Moore and Ordinary Language”, “Moore’s Use of ‘Know’”, “Defending Common Sense") • Soames, Scott: Philosophical in the Twentieth Century, Chapters 1-2 • Black, Max: “On Speaking with the Vulgar”

Week 6 Core Reading: • Stebbing, Susan: Chapter 3 “The Furniture of the Earth” from Philosophy and The Physicists Background Reading: • Introduction to Sir Arthur Eddington's Gifford Lectures • Stebbing, Susan: “The Method of Analysis in Metaphysics” Advanced Reading • Sider, Ted: “Against Parthood • Stebbing, Susan: “ and Analysis”

Week 7 Core Readings: • Russell, Bertrand: The Problems of Philosophy, Chapters 1-4 Advanced Reading: • Moore, Hicks, Stebbing, “The of Sensible Appearances” • Austin, J. L.: Sense and Sensibilia • Chisholm, Roderick: Theory of Knowledge, Chapter 6.

Week 8 Core Reading: • Russell, “On Denoting” Background Reading: • Russell, Chapter 16 “Descriptions” from Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy • Soames, Scott: The Philosophy of Language §1.2 Advanced Reading: • Sainsbury, R. M.: Russell, Chapters 3-4

Week 9 Core Reading: • Russell, The Problems of Philosophy , Chapter 5

Background Reading:

4 • Russell, “Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description”

Advanced Reading: • Amijee, Fatema: “The Role of Attention in Russell's Theory of Knowledge”

Week 10 Core Reading: • Russell, “The Relation of Sense Data to Physics” Advanced Reading: • Bostock, Russell’s Logical Atomism, Chapter 9

Week 11 Core Reading: • Stebbing, Susan: Chapter 6, “Potted Thinking” from Thinking to Some Purpose and Chapters 7 and 8 from Ideals and Illusions Advanced Reading: • Chapman, Siobhan: Susan Stebbing and the Language of Common Sense

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. better understand the work of foundational figures in analytic philosophy: Frege, Russell, and Moore. 2. better understand contemporary debates in metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic, and epistemology. 3. locate contemporary debates in their proper historical context.

Key words: Frege, Russell, Moore, Stebbing, 20th century philosophy, metaphysics, language, logic, epistemology

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