NOTE: There is a certain degree of modularity to this course, with the emphasis on particular readings determined by the background and interests of the students.
9 May - The Logical Foundations of 20th Century Philosophical Research
Readings
Frost-Arnold, “Quine’s Evolution from ‘Carnap’s disciple’ to the Author of “Two Dogmas””
Katzav, “Analytic Philosophy, 1925-69: Emergence, Management, and Nature”
Lutz, “What was the Syntax-Semantics Debate in the Philosophy of Science About?”
Tuboly, “The Early Formation of Modal Logic and its Significance: A Historical Note on Quine, Carnap, and a Bit of Church”
Background (Optional Readings)
Francez, Proof-Theoretic Semantics, chapter 1
Garson, What Logics Mean, chapter 1
Awody and Carus, “Carnap’s Dream: Gödel, Wittgenstein, and Logical Syntax”
Ebbs, “Analyticity: The Carnap-Quine Debate and its Aftermath”
Quine, “Reference and Modality” in From a Logical Point of View
Quine, “Three Grades of Modal Involvement” and “Necessary Truth”, both in The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays
Tuboly, “Why did Quine’s Animadversions against Modal Logic go Unheard?”
Tuboly, “Quine and Quantified Modal Logic – Against the Received View”
Carnap, “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology”
Haack, “Some Preliminaries to Ontology” (responds to ESO)
4. 10 May - Modal Realism and Modal Expressivism
Readings
Brandom, Between Saying and Doing, Chapters 1 and 4
Millikan, “The Father, the Son, and the Daughter: Sellars, Brandom, and Millikan”
Price, “Naturalism without Representationalism” in Expressivism, Pragmatism, and Representationalism;
Thomasson, “Modal Normativism and the Methods of Metaphysics”
Background (Optional Readings)
Francez, Proof-Theoretic Semantics, chapter 2
Thomasson, “Non-Descriptivism about Modality: A Brief History and Revival”;
Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through the Logical Analysis of Language”
Sellars “Counterfactuals, Dispositions, and the Causal Modalities”
Brandom, Between Saying and Doing, Chapter 5
Brandom, “Modal Realism and Modal Exressivism: Together Again”
Price, “Brandom, Hume, and the Genealogy of Modals”;
Peirce, “The Basis of Pragmaticism and the Normative Sciences” in The Essential Peirce, Volume 2
Price, “Expressivism for Two Voices”,
Talisse and Aikin, “The Origins of Pragmatism” in Pragmatism: A Guide for the Perplexed
4. 13 May - Case Study: The Metaphysics of Modality
Readings
Fine, “Essence and Modality”
Lewis, The Plurality of Worlds, chapter 1
Sellars, “Inference and Meaning”
Background (Optional Readings)
Morris, “Scientific Philosophy and the Critique of Metaphysics From Russell to Carnap to Quine”
Peregrin “Carnap’s Inferentialism”
Tuboly, “From ‘Syntax’ to ‘Semantik’ – Carnap’s Inferentialism and its Prospects”
Verhaegh, “Review of Carnap, Quine, and Putnam on Methods of Inquiry by Gary Ebbs”
Stalnaker, “Propositions”
4. 14 May - Case Study: The Metaphysics of Intentionality
Readings
Butterfill, “Coordinating Joint Action”
Chant, “Collective Action and Agency
Roth, “Shared Agency” at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shared-agency/
Sellars, “Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man” from In the Space of Reasons (consider section VI optional)
Background (Optional Readings)
Gibbard, Thinking How to Live, chapters 3 and 4
Sellars, “Science and Metaphysics, Chapter 7, and “Form and Content in Ethical Theory”
Schweikard and Schmid, “Collective Intentionality” at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collective-intentionality/