B.Phil. Seminar
Philosophical Logic and Philosophy of Language

Volker Halbach and Tim Williamson

Hilary Term 2007

Mondays, 11-13
Lecture Room 4, New College

Each week we will discuss one reading, which everyone attending is expected to have read. Discussion will be introduced by Tim Williamson in week 1, by Volker Halbach in week 4 and by students in the remaining weeks. Student introduction should be short (10-15 minutes), summarizing the main ideas and possibly raising a question or two.

1. David Kaplan: "Thoughts on Demonstratives" in P. Yourgrau (ed.), Demonstratives (Oxford, Oxford Readings in Philosophy), 1990. As background reading we recommend "Dthat" in the same volume.
2. Robert Stalnaker: "Possible Worlds", Nous 10 (1976), 65-75, available from JSTOR.
3. Hartry Field: "Deflationist Views of Meaning and Content", Mind 103 (1994), 247-285, reprinted in Field's Truth and the Absence of Facts, OUP 2001.
4. Saul Kripke: "Outline of a Theory of Truth", Journal of Philosophy 72 (1975), 690-712, reprinted in ] Robert L. Martin, Recent essays on truth and the Liar paradox, Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1984. The mathematical aspects of Kripke's theory are elaborated in Vann McGee: Truth, Vagueness, and Paradox: An Essay on the Logic of Truth, Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1991.
5. Alfred Tarski: "What Are Logical Notions?", History and Philosophy of Logic 7 (1986), 143-154.
6. John Etchemendy: "Tarski on Truth and Logical Consequence", Journal of Symbolic Logic 53 (1988), 51-79. This session will be conducted by Alexander Paseau.
7. George Bealer: "Universals", Journal of Philosophy 90 (1993), 5-32.
8. Mark Crimmins and John Perry: "The prince and the phone booth: Reporting puzzling beliefs", Journal of Philosophy 86 (1989), 685-711.