Dr Peter Dennis LAK2.01

This course is available on the BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and BSc in Politics and Philosophy. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Pre-requisites: PH103 Reason, Knowledge and Values.

Short description: Some central topics in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of logic and language. Topics may vary by year.

More detailed description: The rise of analytic philosophy will likely be remembered as one of the most significant revolutions in the history of the subject. The introduction of new and powerful methods transformed old problems and uncovered new ones, exercising the minds of some of the greatest philosophers of all time. These include early founders such as Gottlobb Frege, G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Elizabeth Anscombe, as well as more recent practitioners such as Donald Davidson and Hilary Putnam. So successful has it been that the vast majority of philosophy departments in the English-speaking world today would describe themselves as ‘analytic’.

This course offers a snapshot of some of the deepest and most enduring problems of analytic philosophy, covering its four core areas: philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics. By gaining familiarity with classic and contemporary texts in analytic philosophy, students will be encouraged to seek answers to questions such as the following.

Language

What is the relationship between language and reality? How do words ‘pick out’ objects in the world? Is meaning ‘in the head’? What is truth? And could you have thoughts if you didn’t already speak a language?

• Readings from Gottlobb Frege, Bertrand Russell, Hilary Putnam, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Mind

What are minds? What is the relationship between minds and brains, and how do mental events cause physical ones? How does consciousness emerge from matter? And do the objects of thought extend beyond the contents of our own minds?

• Readings from Donald Davidson, J.J.C Smart, and David Chalmers.

Epistemology

We look at some foundational issues underlying epistemology such as: What is perceptual experience? Is there a 'gap' between experience and reality? Can we ever know the contents of another person's mind?

• Readings from A. J. Ayer, John Searle, Paul Snowdon and J.M. Hinton

Metaphysics

What is time? Is there any real difference between causes and effects, and if so how are they related? What makes you a different person from me, and what (if anything) makes you the same person throughout your life?

• Readings from David Lewis, Peter van Inwagen, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Derek Parfit.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Lectures are taught alongside PH501 postgraduate students.

Students will be expected to participate actively in their classes and to write 3 formative essays, each with a 2000 word limit. None of these may be a draft of the summative assignment.

Bertrand Russell, Problems of Philosophy (Any Edition)

A.P. Martinich & D. Sosa (eds.) Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell

Exam (67%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (33%, 2000 words) in the ST.