The course will offer an introduction to the analytic philosophy of language, starting from some of the classic problems and authors of the XX Century. It will be helpful both to those following a course in philosophy, and to those who jest wish to enrich their humanistic or scientific education through the basic notions of this discipline, which is one of the most noticeable features of our culture. We will mainly study semantics, the area in which the research in the last century produced its most important results.

What is the philosophy of language. The philosophy of language at the beginning of the XX Century. Information and reference and their various aspects.  Frege: sense, reference, connotation, implicatures, anti-mentalism, indirect contexts. The nature of universals. Russell: the rejection of sense; the theory of descriptions; how empty sentences get truth-values; logical atomism.  Wittgenstein's Tractatus di : language as picturing; truth tables; tha enature of logics and mathematics; the ineffability of language; the role of philosophy. Neopositivism: the early verificationism, the liberalization of empiricism, the problems of liberalized verificationism.  The descriptive conceptions of reference. Donnellan on the referential use of descriptions.  Kripke's criticisms of descriptivsm. The direct reference of names. Historic-causal chians. The rigidity of  reference. Putnam on the names of natural kinds.  Meanings aren't in the head. Some philosophical consequences.

No previous courses are required. In preparation to this course.

Knowledge and understanding: By the end of the course the students should  be able to understand and explain philosophical texts of medium difficulty, know and discuss some of the classical problems in philosophy of language, and employ  some of the main bibliographic and information tools in the area.

Applying knowledge and understanding: After the course the students should  be able to discuss and evaluate some of the main claims and arguments in the XX Century philosophy of language, and apply their knowledge to common examples from everyday language.

Making judgements: After the course the students should  be able to make autonomus judgements about some of the main topics in the XX century debates on semantics. To this end, discussion in the class will be encouraged, and students will be evaluated, among the rest, also for the capacity for autonomous elaborations of the materials.

Communication skills: After the course the students should  be able to report about the topics of the course and discuss them with conceptual and linguistic precision; they should also be able to frame general pictures to outline the problems  efficaciously and synthetically. To this end they will learn to manage accurately the specific philosophical volcabulary in this field. In order to achieve these results both a careful analysis of the assigned texts and an  active participation in the classroom discussion will be important.

Learning skills: By the end of the course students should have become  familiar with the topics and the methods of this discipline, so to be able to acquire new knowledge autonomously by using the main bibliographical resources in this area and in bordering areas. More generally, it is expected that students improve their attitudes to conceptual analysis and analytic argumentation. Besides, they should acquire a good capacity of conceptual analysis and analytic argumentation,by which they should be able to approach autonomously further subjects in this area and practice initial research activities, such as for a master's dissertation.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

Classroom lectures presenting general overviews, analyses of particular topics, comments to texts, preceded and followed by students’ questions, comments and discussion. Readings from the literature relevant to each class will be assigned for homework and  questions about them will be encouraged at next meeting.

Attendance

This course will require intellectual commitment, but will help to develop rigor, clarity and precision of language and thought. This is why It is strongly advised to attend lectures regularly and actively since the beginning. Because of the critical and analytic character of the topics an active participation in the discussion is very important. Therefore it is recommended to study the materials assigned during each lecture before the next class.. Those unable to attend classes can study on the text listed below, but this will involve hard work and capacities for self-guided learning, analysis and abstract thought.

Successful attendance presupposes the kinds of skills and knowldege acquired during the B.A program in philosophy, such as the general and particular pieaces of knowledge, the most common basic concepts, the capacity of understanding philosophical texts, especially in analytic philosophy, the attitude for abstract reasoning and argumentation.

A preliminary or contextual reading of the relevant chapters of a high school handbook of philosophy may be useful, although it is by no means mandatory. These are the chapters concerning: Logical Neopositivism, analytic philosophy, Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, and Quine

Course books

Required is the study of the following texts:

(1)  M. Alai, Filosofia analitica del linguaggio, Mimesis 2021. Capitoli 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, only the basic text and the following pages: § 2.33, pp. 77-81; § 9.32, pp. 401-402; § 9.33, pp. 404-406; § 9.34, pp. 407-412; § 9.36, pp. 419-421; § 9.44, pp. 431-434. This is to say that he sections labelled as "approfondimenti" and "discussioni" may be skipped, except for the just listed pages. This text may be substituted by a handbook of philosophy of language in English suggested or previously approved by the teacher.

(2) Pages 400-414 (§§ 7-11) of R. Carnap, Pseudoproblemi nella filosofia, also available on the Blended learning platform;

The following articles, form the antology Filosofia del linguaggio, a cura di P. Casalegno et. al., Raffaello Cortina, 2003:

(3) G. Frege, "Senso e significato"

(4) B. Russell, "Le descrizioni"

(5) S. Kripke, "Nomi e riferimento"
(6) H. Putnam, "Significato, riferimento, stereotipi".

There are no further requirements, but the following textbook (or other standard textbook) may be helpful if needed:
(i) D. Marconi, La filosofia del linguaggio. Da Frege ai giorni nostri, UTET, 1999.
(ii) P. Casalegno, Filosofia del linguaggio. Un'introduzione, Carocci, 1998,
(iii) W. Lycan, Filosofia del linguaggio, Cortina Editore, 2002.
(iv) C. Penco, Introduzione alla filosofia del linguaggio, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2004

(v) Vignolo, Frixione Filosofia del linguaggio, Le Monnier, Firenze 2018.

(vi) C. Bianchi, Pragmatica del linguaggio, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2003.

(vii) Biblioteca analitica: i testi fondamentali, a cura di G. Bonino, C. Gabbani, P. Tripodi, Carocci 2020, chs. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 13, 15, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34.

(viii) The other materials uploaded on Blended learning

 Each of these works may be also studied in an English edition (all of them very easily available), while text (1) can substituted by an English equivalent -- e.g., G. Kemp, "What is this thing called 'philosphy of language'", suggested or previopusly approved by the teacher

Assessment

Exams at the regular examination dates will be oral. If it will become possible to arrange in-classroom exams, before the official examination date a written examination will be offered. It will not be required, but strongly advised to sit at that examination, and it will substitute the oral examination.

The written exams consists of four open questions, one of which can be substituted by a second-choice question, in case the question picks one of the few gaps in the student's knowledge  The written exam allows a comparative and more objective assessment of the students’ learning, while testing the capacities for reflection, writing and argumentation. However the option to choose instead the oral examination allows even the students less familiar with written examinations to seek a good final mark. Both the written and the oral exam are intended to ascertain not only the students' knowledge of the concepts, problems, authors and doctrines discussed by the course,  but also their comprehension, the acquisition of better attitudes to  analysis, exposition, analytic argumentation,  and of the capacity to discuss in a critical and possibly original way the topics of classes and assigned readings. All of these criteria will have equal weight in the assessment. Each question of the written exam will be marked from 1 to 10, according to the described criteria. Then the average of the four questions will be expressed on a scale of 1 to 30, making sure that the best students can in any case receive satisfactory marks, and the different levels of performance are adequately distinguished. The curve helps to make up for the contingent factors which can affect the average performance of the students in one academic year with respect to students of other years, or of the students of this course with respect to other courses, thus seeking diachronically and synchronically uniform standards for all students. The oral examination will begin with two or three open questions on rather general subjects, and if needed  to achieve a more precise and reliable evaluation further more specific questions will be asked. Each answer will be graded from 1 to 30 according to the above criteria and the considerations guiding the curvature of the written exam. The final grade will then be the average of partial grades. Active participation in class discussion will also weight in the assessment, contributing to the choice of the curve and to decide the grade in case of uncertainties between a higher or lower grade. 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Individual study according to the following directions and by taking advantage as far as possible of the tutoring given by the teacher during office hours or through electronic communication devices. Links to the recorded lectures the lectures are available on Moodle › https://blended.uniurb.it.

Attendance

This course will require intellectual commitment, but will help to develop rigor, clarity and precision of language and thought. This is why attendance would be desirable. In the impossibility of attending, a particularly careful work is required to make up. The competence in understanding theoretical texts and in abstract reasoning as ordinarily learned in high school are presupposed by this course.  Besides, in the lack of attendance to classes one needs good capacity for self-directed learning and basic capacities for understanding philosophical texts. If possible it is highly advisable to study together with other students, whether attending classes or not. It is advisable to test one’s grasp of the topics by trying to produce examples of the relevant concepts. To help self-evaluation the teacher will provide, even upon request, list of sample exam questions. In order to substitute as far as possible the active participation to classes, students can fix with the teacher the topic of a term paper which must be turned in in advance befor the final exam.

In place of the interactive learning ordinarily taking place during classes, the students may agree with the instructor on the topic of a short essay which will be handed in at least one week before the exam.

Course books

Required readings: the same as for attending students

Students are allowed to supplement their oral exam by agreeing with the instructor on the topic of a short essay which will be handed in at least one week before the exam.

Assessment

Exams at the regular examination dates will be oral. If it will become possible to arrange in-classroom exams, before the official examination date a written examination will be offered. It will not be required, but strongly advised to sit at that examination, and it will substitute the oral examination.

Both the oral and the written exam will be as described for attending students, and to them apply the same comments as made above for attending students.They consist of open questions intended tare intended to ascertain not only the students' knowledge of the concepts, problems, authors and doctrines discussed by the course,  but also their comprehension, the acquisition of better attitudes to  analysis, exposition, analytic argumentation,  and of the capacity to discuss in a critical and possibly original way the topics of classes and assigned readings. If the student writes a term paper on a topic agreed upon with the teacher, handing it in one week before the examination, it will also be taken into account in the final evaluation, with approximately the weight of one single question.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Foreign students are allowed to use the English, French or Spanish  language for all the study texts, questions and comments in the classroom, and for the final exam