C. Verheggen
Office Location: Ross S436
Office Hours: Tuesday 1-2 pm, and by appt.
cverheg@yorku.ca

The course will focus on the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and one of his most penetrating commentators, Barry Stroud.  To be scrutinized are Wittgenstein’s remarks on the nature of meaning, understanding, and communication.  These include his remarks on language-games, ostensive definition, family resemblances, the connection between meaning and use, the rule-following paradox made famous by Saul Kripke, and the possibility of a “private” language.  Throughout, we’ll also be asking to what extent Wittgenstein can be understood as suggesting constructive philosophical views, or whether he is better understood as maintaining, as he himself declared, that he had no philosophical thesis and that the sole purpose of philosophy is to dissolve problems rather than to solve them.

--Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Philosophical Investigations, Wiley-Blackwell 2009 (4^th ed.)

--Stroud, Barry, Meaning, Understanding, and Practice, Oxford University Press 2000      

--Kripke, Saul A., Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language, Harvard University Press 1982

1. Class participation and attendance: 20%
2. Paper topic and annotated bibliography: 10%
3. Class presentation: 10%
4. Term paper: 60%

Weekly Class (3 hours); 4 components to class assessment.

1. Students will be able to engage major debates concerning specific issues in philosophy of language, as well as the arguments and theories underlying various positions in those debates.
2. Students will be able to think critically about philosophical concepts and theories that are currently at the foreground of debates in philosophy of language.
3. Students will develop advanced analytic and communicative skills in philosophy; namely, the ability to articulate and defend a coherent thesis within an essay, as well as the ability to absorb, synthesize and reflect upon complex information gained from reading assignments or in a classroom setting.