{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021928009929664875, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00703351261894911, 'mean_word_length': 4.8125, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
PHILOSOPHY 425: Philosophy of Language Course Syllabus - Spring 2015

Although the philosophy of language has its roots in the work of Frege in the latter half of the nineteenth century, it did not emerge as a distinct field of study until the 1950's and 1960's. Like most young disciplines, it is suffering an identity crisis. There is heated debate over what the proper topics of study ought to be and over what an adequate account of meaning, truth, reference, etc. should consist in. As a result of this unsettled state of the field, today is a particularly exciting time to explore issues in the philosophy of language, and this is also an excellent way to get involved with fundamental questions In this course I do not intend to focus on contemporary debates about meaning, truth, and reference that evolved from Frege. I call this the "objectivist" tradition, and I will begin by trying to set out its fundamental assumptions and describing its program. We will focus on several recent criticisms of these fundamental assumptions, such as those raised earlier by speech-act theory and more recently by research coming from the cognitive sciences. These criticisms challenge objectivist theories of meaning and underscore the need for a radically different approach to language, meaning, and concepts. This opens up what will become our primary focus, namely, an exploration of new research that reveals two fundamental aspects of human understanding and language. First, we will look at studies that show the pivotal role of our bodies in shaping our concepts and patterns of thought. Second, we will explore the ways this embodied understanding is extended via structures of imagination to define our abstract concepts. This latter part of the course will emphasize the importance of conceptual metaphor in all of our abstract concepts, including time, causation, mind, self-identity, and morality. In short, our central focus will be on the embodied and imaginative nature of meaning, language, and all forms of symbolic expression. Schedule of Topics/Readings: Below is a tentative schedule of topics and readings for the appropriate dates. We may need to make some changes as we assess our progress and interests, so minor revision of this plan may occur. The readings are available from The Copy Shop on 13 th St. The readings in the packet are arranged according to the schedule of readings given below.