sign in sign up
<<
Home , Edmund Gettier

PHILOSOPHY 317 HISTORY OF

FALL 2018

PROFESSOR RICH GRAZIANO

+ [email protected] l 26M-103 // T 12-1:30pm, W 2-3:30pm, R 12-1pm, or by appointment ' 805.756.5167 8 http://www.cola.calpoly.edu/~rgrazian/phil317.html course description What kinds of things exist, and how many are there? What is it for something to exist, and how can we speak of things that don’t exist? What are concepts, and how do we get them? What sense can we make of the way things might have been, they way things can never be, and even, the way things must be? What is , and what, if anything, can we humans know? Is it reasonable to believe that, let alone ask if, God exists? What sense can we make of moral claims? Like their philosophical predecessors, analytic have made substantive efforts to explore, develop, and defend answers to these and other fundamental questions. However, unique to their efforts is a commitment to the view that the “key” to these explanatory efforts is one that begins with a so-called “analytic turn.” What is the analytic turn? That is a topic as much debated in analytic philosophy as any other. Even so, what seems uncontroversial is the idea that it involves a shift from the philosophical methods of the past to a new set of methods, what we call the methods of . And central to these methods of analysis is the idea that our attempts to explain the world must focus primary attention on what we mean when we think, write, and speak. In other words, we must focus on language. To be sure, that’s not a new idea per se. Philosophers have always appreciated the role and relevance of language to developing philosophical theories. However, what advocates of the analytic turn inculcated was that there is nothing beyond language that matters, that in language reside all of the resources to handle philosophical issues. (It’s for this reason that the analytic turn is also called “the linguistic turn.”) And because of this attention on language, some of the questions that we will also address are: What is the nature of philosophical inquiry, i.e., what is the ’s task and what is the proper methodology for doing that task? What, if anything, can and does an analysis of language tell us about the nature of reality? What do words mean, and why do some strings of them convey information and others are meaningless noise? To what do proper names like ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘The United States of America’ refer? If the analytic turn is correct, then what is the proper language for scientific theorizing and describing reality?

Among analytic philosophers, a few have particular prominence: Gottlob Frege, , G.E. Moore, , A.J. Ayer, W.V.O. Quine, J.L. Austin, , , and Edmund Gettier. Each of these thinkers has permanently reshaped the philosophical landscape. Our focus will be to read and critically examine their works. Toward that end, we will begin with the works of Frege, Russell, and (early) Wittgenstein, the framers of what is called “ideal language philosophy,” and seek to understand how they developed and employed the new methods of analysis. Central here is the development and appeal to modern logic. Next, we will turn our attention to the development of this ideal language approach to philosophy which ultimately led to the rise and eventual demise of a school of thought known as logical . Among these, we will read key works by Ayer and Quine. Following this, we will turn our attention to responses to ideal language philosophy. This will come in two parts. First, we will consider the responses by two “ordinary language philosophers,” (late) Wittgenstein, and Austin. Their concern is that an ideal language is not in fact necessary for doing the philosopher’s task. Second, we will consider the responses by the direct reference theorists, Kripke and Putnam, two thinkers who have changed the face of analytic philosophy for good and argue that ideal language philosophy does not accurately capture how we think and speak. Finally, time permitting, we will turn our attention to two epistemic discussions regarding our knowledge of the world around us: Putnam’s application of direct reference theory to the problem of philosophical , and Gettier’s discussion of what it is to know something in the first place. course learning objectives By the end of the course, you will know and be able to: (a) State and explain various philosophical issues and problems of particular interest to analytic philosophy, (b) State, explain and evaluate the varieties of leading analytic philosophical theories offered to understand and explain those issues and solve those problems, (c) State, explain and evaluate varieties of arguments used to defend the leading explanations and theories, and (d) Produce thoughtful, concise philosophical work that displays an understanding and ability to engage in careful philosophical inquiry. course details

Prerequisites: Junior standing or philosophy major, GE Area A with a grade of C- or better, and either GE C2 (preferably Phil 230)

Required Texts (Please bring the reading(s) assigned for a particular class to that meeting): • Stephen P. Schwartz, A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) • Michael Beaney, Analytic Philosophy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017) • Various additional readings (these are available on the course website).

Recommended Texts: • The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 3rd ed., general ed. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015)

“Up-Front” Warning: You need to understand at the outset that the topics we will study are very interesting and important, but at the same time, generally very abstract and thus difficult. This is simply true of philosophy in general; philosophical topics are abstract and require very careful attention to the details. And it is unlikely that there is some subject of which this is more true than our topics. For instance, analytic philosophy can be rather technical and abstract. I will of course give you the tools and resources to help you understand the technical features. But you will have to put in a reasonable amount of effort to do well in this class; it is a mistake to expect this class to be a “grade booster” course. Of course, it is not impossibly difficult. Not only would that not be fair, but you are more than capable of doing well in the course, but doing so requires a great deal of reading, writing and thinking, and it is very unlikely that you will do well if you don’t do that work or do so with care.

Assignments: Your course grade will be determined using the weighting shown below. • Paper 1 = 25% (Tentatively due: week 5) • Paper 2 = 35% (Tentatively due: week 9) • Final exam = 30% (The exam will be held in the same room on Thursday [12/13], 7:10-10pm) • Quizzes = 10% (Weekly) Note well: if you do not write the term papers and take the final exam, you will not pass the course. I will drop the quiz with your lowest score. In cases where one’s grade is “within reach” of the next higher grade, I will also take into account your participation in the classroom discussion and if you show continual improvement throughout the course.

Quizzes. There will be pop quizzes throughout the quarter (approximately one per week). The quizzes will test your command of the reading(s) and/or lecture material. Although I will usually give the quizzes at the beginning of class, they can occur anytime during our class meeting. Note well: unless you have prior approval from me (which will be given only for particular circumstances), the quizzes cannot be made up once I have begun to collect them. As such, it is important that you are in class on time.

Term Papers. You will write two essays for the course. The paper assignments for this course are intended to teach you two things: (1) to be able to employ analytic philosophical methodology, e.g., the reconstruction and evaluation of an author’s position and argument(s) for that position. (Although I will discuss this in class, the article by Graziano [“On Writing Philosophical Essays: Some Guidelines”‡] provides an in-depth discussion on how to do this.); (2) to help you be able to think critically about so- called “core issues” in . Approximately one week before the due date of the essay, you will receive a prompt that describes and explains the details of the assignment. Note well: These essay assignments are to be done using nothing other than the assigned reading and any course handouts. Any use of other materials—including, but not limited to, Wikipedia, Sparknotes, Cliffnotes, etc.—will automatically result in a failing grade. Also, your essay will automatically be lowered by one letter grade—e.g., a ‘B’ will reduced to a ‘C’—for any instance of the following errors: (i) being turned in late without explicit prior approval; (ii) being longer than the stipulated length requirement stated in the prompt; (iii) failing to adhere to more than one of the stipulated format requirements stated in the prompt. If you commit all three errors in one assignment, the highest grade it is possible to receive for that assignment is a ‘D’. Ignore these guidelines at your peril; these are non-negotiable! Also, if your essay is turned in late (whether approved or not), you should expect that I will hand it back to you at my convenience.

Final Exam. The final exam is intended to test your mastery of the course content (including, but not limited to, your knowledge of the readings, the issues covered in lecture and arguments for/against a particular claim, etc.). At least one week prior to the final exam, you will receive a review sheet to help you prepare for the exam. While the exam will include material not explicitly noted on the review sheet, it will help guide your preparation. The final exam will be will be comprehensive and given in class (see course schedule below for date and time).

Attendance. Although I do not take attendance, I expect and want you to attend every class. Whether you do attend is a choice I leave up to you. You should know, however, that there is a strong correlation between attendance and pass/failure rates. Attendance does not guarantee that you will pass the course; it merely improves your odds for doing so. Also, you do not need to let me know if you will be missing class. If you do miss class for whatever reason, it is your responsibility to do what you need to get caught up on what we covered on the day(s) you missed. While I am happy to help you, I will only do so within reason. Before you contact me for help, however, you first need to get copies of any lecture notes and announcements from a classmate, and review those carefully. I am happy to help clarify the material or answer any questions you may have concerning the lecture content, but I will not redo my lecture on the material.

Participation & the Classroom Environment. I expect you to be prepared to participate in the discussion; you should be prepared for me to call upon you from time to time to answer questions or read a passage. Certain behaviors—e.g., chatting, doing work from other courses, playing around with a cell phone, reading the newspaper, sleeping, etc.—are distracting and disrespectful to the people who are trying to concentrate on the material, and will not be tolerated. Those who don't feel like taking our class meetings seriously should simply not come. Note well: Please turn off your cell phones prior to the start of each class meeting. In the event that you need to leave early, please make sure to sit in a location that is close to the door so as to minimize distracting the class when you leave.

Email. Throughout the term, I will send out emails to the entire class. To make sure you get those, please make sure that the email address that Cal Poly uses to contact you is correct. If you email me, I will do my best to reply to you in a timely manner. However, you should expect that it will take me at least one (1) business day to reply to your message. I will do my best to reply sooner, but it is very unlikely that will happy. Also, please do not email to ask what you missed or if you missed anything important. I will not reply to emails of that type. As noted above, it is your responsibility to do what you need to get caught up on the material we cover or announcements made if you miss class.

Academic Integrity. Academic integrity is a significant feature of responsibility, accountability and discipline which combined serve an important purpose in both an individual’s and the university community’s growth. I will not tolerate any instance or form of academic dishonesty—cheating, plagiarism, or collusion (i.e., knowingly or intentionally helping another student to cheat or plagiarize). The penalty for any instance of academic dishonesty will be (i) an ‘F’ for the assignment and/or the course and (ii) will be reported to the department chair and the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. If you have any questions or are unfamiliar with what constitutes acts of academic dishonesty, please see me or read the university policies on academic integrity that can be found on the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities website (https://osrr.calpoly.edu).

Special Accommodations. If you have a disability for which you will be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact the Disability Resource Center (Bldg. 124-119 / 805.756.1395) and provide me with the relevant documentation as early as possible in the term. By next class please read: • Schwartz, “Introduction: What is Analytic Philosophy?” • Beaney, “Introduction” and “So What is Analytic Philosophy?” • Gross, “Introduction,” Analytic Philosophy‡

Notes: 1. The symbol ‘‡’ means that the text is available on the course website (under Course Materials>Assignment Handouts) 2. A caveat: parts of this syllabus are subject to change at my discretion.

Ph31701F18