Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
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
Students outside Université de Liège who wish to attend to this seminar should contact the course instructors from September onwards (address below).
The course will address Charles Sanders Peirce's original contributions to the philosophy of language and their contemporary legacies:
1) Introduction: Indices, Icons, Symbols
2) The Semiotic Triangle: Symbol, Sense, and Reference
3) Depiction and Iconicity: the Picture Theory and its Fate
4) Indexicality
5) The Pragmatic Maxim and its Verificationist Appropriation
Analytic philosophy of language ordinarily takes Gottlob Frege as its seminal figure. Without rejecting that account, this course proposes a complementary genealogy attentive to the place of Charles Sanders Peirce. Far from casting him as a forgotten precursor who solved our problems in advance, the aim is rather to show that he posed several questions that have since become canonical, and that his way of handling them illuminates the difficulties of their later reformulations. Following an introduction devoted to the Peircean classification of signs (icon, index, symbol), the course proceeds in four parts.
The first begins from a founding question of the philosophy of language concerning sense and reference: what makes a sign, and a symbol in particular, designate a determinate object? Frege makes reference depend upon sense, Russell upon direct acquaintance with the object. Peirce holds that the sign presents its object without being able, of itself, to give access to it: reference presupposes a collateral experience of the object, external to the sign, while sense is a function of one or several interpretants.
The second, devoted to iconicity, asks how a representation can stand for its object without convention, by mere resemblance. The Tractatus and Peirce both answer in terms of shared structure. But the Wittgensteinian picture displays its structure, whereas the Peircean icon reveals it only in use. We shall see why this difference shields Peirce from the objection of the Investigations and from Goodman's critique.
The third asks what enables indices, and indexicals and demonstratives in particular ("I", "here", "this"), to designate a singular object. For Peirce, indexical reference depends upon a real - notably causal - connection between the sign and what it represents, a connection that may itself depend upon the sign's use in a given context. Reichenbach stresses this semantic reference to the context of use, and Perry shows that indexical reference of this kind is irreducible to any description. In distinguishing the character of indexicals from their content, Kaplan separates what is general from what is singular in their semantic content.
The fourth follows the fate of the pragmatic maxim as an instrument for the clarification of meanings. In Peirce it clarifies concepts through the study of their practical consequences. James broadens it into a method, referred to particular experience, for settling disputes, philosophical ones above all. Ayer and Carnap turn it into a criterion excluding unverifiable statements as meaningless.
A common thread runs through all four: where the analytic tradition sought what binds expressions to the world in their form or their meaning, Peirce located it in the use of signs and in the experience of their interpreters. Rereading him allows us to gauge what that displacement has made difficult to think.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
On completion of the course, students will be able to:
- distinguish the Peircean semiotic categories (icon, index, symbol) and apply them to the analysis of linguistic sentences;
- reconstruct the main positions in the philosophy of language on sense, reference, iconicity, and indexicality, and situate what is at stake in each;
- compare competing treatments of a single problem and assess the difficulties each faces;
- read and comment on a philosophical argument independently.
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
Further information:
The course will be held in the second term (February-May) in room Commu II (A1/2/24b), on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning 5 February 2027.
The course takes the form of a seminar with active participation from students. Attendance at all sessions is therefore required.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
- MyULiège
Further information:
Primary texts by the authors studied will be made available.
Provisional bibliography:
1) Introduction : Index, Icons, Symbols
- Peirce, (1895/1998) "Of Reasoning in General" dans The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings (1893-1913). Indiana University Press, pp. 11-26.
- Burks, (1949). "I. Peirce's Classification of Signs into Icon, Index, and Symbol", dans "Icon, Index, and Symbol", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 9(4), 673-680.
2) The Semiotic triangle : Symbol, Sense and Reference
- Frege, "On Sense and Reference" (1892).
- Russell, "On Denoting" (1905).
- Peirce, (1907/1998). "Pragmatism" In The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings (1893-1913). Indiana University Press, pp. 398-433. Excerpts Peirce, "Letters to Lady Welby".
3) Depiction and Iconicity : the Picture Theory and its Fate
- Excerpts Wittgenstein, (1922). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Excerpts from Peirce (1906). "Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism." The Monist 16 (4), pp. 492-546; Peirce (1868). "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 2 (3), pp. 140-157.
- Excerpts Goodman, (1968). Languages of art : an approach to a theory of symbols. Bobbs Merrill.
4) Indexicality
- Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic, § 50-51 (1947).
- Perry, « The Problem of the Essential Indexical » (1979).
- Kaplan, « Demonstratives » (1977/1989).
5) The Pragmatiste Maxim and its Verificationiste Appropriation
- Peirce, « How to Make Our Ideas Clear » (1878), EP1 ; « What Pragmatism Is » (1905), EP2.
- James, Pragmatism, chap. II & III (1907).
- Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, chap. I (1936).
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( open-ended questions )
Continuous assessment
Further information:
Assessment comprises two components:
A. Seminar participation (presentation of a text, contributions following the presentation of other texts, participation in discussion) will count for half of the final mark.
Each session requires preparation through the reading of the assigned texts. At the start of each session, one student - in rotation, according to an order agreed in advance - will give a brief presentation (15 minutes) of the text under collective discussion, bringing out its principal claims together with the arguments for and against them; these claims are to be illustrated with linguistic examples drawn from the text or devised by the student. The student presenting must also be prepared to analyse, using the theoretical resources of the text, linguistic examples supplied by the instructors. The other students will then be invited to point out any further claims or arguments and to raise objections. The instructors draw on this material for the remainder of the session.
B. A written examination will be held during the term, counting for the other half of the mark. Students will answer one of several analytical questions on themes addressed in the seminar.
Use of AI*
Students are required to familiarise themselves with the ULiège Charter on the use of generative artificial intelligence in academic work, so as to make considered, responsible, critical, and transparent use of it: https://www.student.uliege.be/cms/c_19230399/fr/faq-student-charte-uliege-d-utilisation-des-intelligences-artificielles-generatives-dans-les-travaux-universitaires
AI should not replace human intelligence, only support it. Those who wish to make intelligent use of AI in their civic and professional lives must first acquire for themselves a range of cognitive skills that will allow them to consult it intelligently, verify its answers, and identify its limitations. Acquiring these skills personally has the further benefit of reducing dependence on such technologies.
For this reason, the cognitive skills of reading, comprehension, interpretation, analysis, synthesis, and expression will be assessed in this course without recourse to AI. Any use of AI during assessment is prohibited and will be treated as academic misconduct.
* By "AI" we mean conversational agents such as ChatGPT, together with any other AI tool that analyses or synthesises information, produces text, and so on.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Contacts
S. DESCARREAUX & B. LECLERCQ
Département de Philosophie
7, place du 20 août - 4000 Liège
sdescarreaux@uliege.be - B.Leclercq@uliege.be