Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
| Master in linguistics (120 ECTS) | 5 crédits | |||
| Master in philosophy (120 ECTS) | 5 crédits | |||
| Master in philosophy (60 ECTS) | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The course will focus on the first one as well as on another one (at choice) of the following six topics :
1) The philosophy of language meets the philosophy of fiction
The philosophy of fiction is a complex field which articulates several domains of philosophy. For instance, philosophers of fiction raise questions within aesthetics (What counts as a good or bad fiction?), the philosophy of art (What is the difference between pictorial and linguistic fictions?), epistemology (Can we learn from fiction?), the philosophy of mind (What is imagination?), metaphysics (What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction?), ontology (Do fictional characters exist?), etc. This non-exhaustive list aims to show that the philosophy of fiction is a broad area which can be explored from
many perspectives.
In this course, we will focus on the specific problems raised by fictional discourse within the philosophy of language. In particular, we will investigate the two fundamental semantic notions, namely truth and reference. Indeed, we will see that theorising about fictional discourse forces one to use these fundamental notions in a non-standard way. We will set up the problems separately on both sides and explore the logical space of possible solutions. These problems are still open research problems breeding lively debates that students will be able to appreciate.
2) Descriptivist and referential semantics
Meaning and reference (Frege, Carnap)
Direct and rigid reference of proper names (Mill, Russell, Kripke)
Direct and rigid reference of definite descriptions (Russell, Strawson, Kripke, Donnellan)
Semantic externalism (Wittgenstein, Kripke, Putnam, Burge)
Character and content of indexicals (Kaplan)
Reference de se (Lewis, Perry)
3) Semantic externalism and semantic deference
Three kinds of semantic externalism
Semantic deference
Empirical investigations on semantic deference
Metasemantic disagreements and conceptual engineering
4) Is there some literal meaning ?
Semantic compositionality
Literalism versus contextualism
Primary and secondary pragmatic processes
5) Linguistic universalism and relativism
The case of categories of thought : Aristotle and Benveniste
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Chomsky and the universal grammar
Quine and traductibility
Groupe µ and prelinguistic semiotic universals
6) The Searle-Derrida debate
Two looks on language acts
Two ways of doing philosophy
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Knowledge of some of the issues in contemporary philosophy of language
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Preferably introduction to analytic philosophy or to philosophy of language
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Additional information:
Teaching will be given on Fridays (from 11 am to 1 pm) in the second term (from February till May) starting from February 10 2023.
Some sessions will be organized together with colleagues of other universities; some of them could be held in Brussels at some time different from usual schedule
Recommended or required readings
Texts will be provided.
For a general presentation of the issues that will be tackled :
1) Basic papers:
- Lewis, David (1978). "Truth in fiction". In: American philosophical quarterly 15.1, pp. 37-46.
- Searle, John (1975). "The logical status of fictional discourse". In: New literary history 6.2, pp. 319-332.
- Van Inwagen, Peter (1977). "Creatures of fiction". In: American philosophical quarterly 14.4, pp. 299-308.
- Priest, Graham (1997). "Sylvan's Box: A Short Story and Ten Morals". In: Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 38.4, pp. 573-582.
- Friend, Stacie (2017). "The real foundation of fictional worlds". In: Australasian Journal of Philosophy 95.1, pp. 29-42.
Most influential books in the field:
- Currie, Gregory (1990). The nature of fiction. Cambridge University Press.
- Walton, Kendall (1990). Mimesis as Make-believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Harvard University Press.
- Kripke, Saul (1973/2013). Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures. Oxford University Press, USA.
- Lamarque, Peter and S.H. Olsen (1994). Truth, Fiction, and Literature: A Philosophical Perspective. Clarendon library of logic and philosophy. Clarendon Press.
Relevant literature:
- Nabokov, Vladimir (1980). Lectures on Literature. 1st ed. by Fredson Bowers and John Updike. Mariner Books.
- Calvino, Italo (1988). Six Memos for the Next Millennium. transl. Creagh, P. Charles Eliot Norton lectures. Harvard University Press.
- Eco, Umberto (1994). Six walks in the fictional woods. Harvard University Press.
- Ryan, Marie-Laure (1991). Possible Worlds, Artificial lntelligence, and Narrative Theory. Indiana University Press.
2) François Recanati, Direct Reference: From Language to Thought, Blackwell Publishers, 1993.
3) Wittgenstein L (1953) Philosophical Investigations. In: Anscombe GEM, Rhees R (eds), translated by GEM Anscombe. Blackwell, Oxford (extraits)
Kripke S (1972) Naming and Necessity. Blackwell, Oxford (extraits)
Putnam H (1975a) "The meaning of 'meaning'". In: Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 215-271
Burge T (1979) "Individualism and the mental". Midwest Studies in Philosophy 4:73-121. Reprinted in: Foundations of Mind. Philosophical Essays, vol 2. Oxford University Press, Oxford New York, 100-150
Jackman H (2005) "Temporal externalism, deference, and our ordinary linguistic practice". Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 86:365-380
Liu JL (2002), "Physical externalism and social/conventional externalism: are they really compatible?" Journal of Philosophical Research 27:381-404
Recanati F (1997) "Can we believe what we do not understand?" Mind and Language 12:84-100
De Brabanter P, Leclercq B (2019) "Proposition d'une enque^te empirique sur les intuitions « externalistes » des locuteurs a` travers le mode de de´fe´rence se´mantique". Travaux du Cercle Belge de Linguistique-Studies van de Belgische Kring voor Linguïstiek 13. Online at http://www.bkl-cbl.be
Cappelen H (2018) Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Plunkett D, Sundell T (2013) "Disagreement and the semantics of normative and evaluative terms", Philosophers' Imprint 13(23):1-37
4) François Recanati, Literal Meaning, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
5) Aristotle - Catégories et Topiques (excerpts)
Benveniste - "Catégories de pensée et catégories de langue"
Annick Stevens - "L'articulation du logique et de l'ontologique dans les catégories d'Aristote"
Edward Sapir - "The status of linguistics as a science"
Benjamin Lee Whorf - "Science and linguistics"
Noam Chomsky - Le langage et la pensée (excerpts)
Willard Van Orman Quine - "Parler d'objets"
Willard Van Orman - Word and object (excerpts)
Groupe µ - Principia Semiotica (introduction)
Bruno Leclercq - "Naturalité de la catégorisation sémantique"
6) Jacques Etienne, « Philosophie et communication », La communication. Actes du XVe congrès de l'Association des sociétés de philosophie de langue française, Montréal, 1973, p. 393-431.
John Searle, « Reiterating the Differences : A Reply to Derrida », Glyph 1, 1977, p. 198-208.
John Searle, « The World Turned Upside Down », New York Review of Books, vol. XXX, number 16, october 27, 1983, p. 74-79.
Jacques Derrida J., Limited Inc., Paris, Galilée, 1990.
John Searle, « La théorie littéraire et ses bévues philosophiques », Stanford French Review, 17, 2-3, 1993, p. 221-256.
Delphine Didderen, «Itérabilité et parasitisme: Essai sur le débat entre Searle et Derrida autour du langage et de l'intentionnalité», Bulletin d'Analyse Phénoménologique [En ligne], Numéro 4, Volume 2 (2006), URL : https://popups.uliege.be/1782-2041/index.php?id=99.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Additional information:
Oral exam based on the study of some of the texts
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Contacts
B. LECLERCQ
Département de Philosophie
7, place du 20 août - 4000 Liège
B.Leclercq@uliege.be
in collaboration with Louis ROUILLE, FNRS postdoc