Lecture Notes

The lecture notes are closely tied to the readings and are designed to help the student comprehend and consider the issues presented.

WEEK # TOPICS LECTURE NOTES
Section One: Sense and Reference, Names and Descriptions
1 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum I: Introductory (PDF)

II: On Sense and Reference (PDF)
2 Russell: On Denoting

Russell: Descriptions
III: Russell on Denoting (PDF)
3 Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism IV: Quine's Two Dogmas (PDF)
4-5 Kripke: Naming and Necessity

Putnam: Meaning and Reference
V: Naming and Necessity, Lecture One (PDF)

VI: Naming and Necessity, Lecture Two (PDF)

VII: Naming and Necessity, Lecture Three (PDF)
6 Strawson: On Referring

Donnellan: Reference and Definite Descriptions

Kripke: Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference
VIII: Strawson and Donnellan on Referring and Denoting (PDF)

IX: Kripke on Donnellan (PDF)
7 von Fintel: Would you believe it? The King of France is Back!

Yablo: Non-Catastropic Presupposition Failure

Perry: The Problem of the Essential Indexical

Lewis: Attitudes De Dicto and De Se
X: Presupposition and Empty Names (PDF)

XI: Indexicals and De Se Attitudes (PDF)
Section Two: Pragmatics
8 Austin: Performative Utterances

Grice: Logic and Conversation
XII: Austin on Peformatives (PDF)

XIII: Grice: Implicature (PDF)
9 Lewis: Scorekeeping in a Language Game

Langton: Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts

Langton and West: Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game
XIV: Lewis: Scorekeeping (PDF)

XV: Langton: Unspeakable Acts (PDF)
10 Lewis: Languages and Language XVI: Lewis: Language and Languages (PDF)
Section Three: Propositional Attitudes
11 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum

Davidson: On Saying That
XVII: Propositional Attitudes: Frege and Davidson (PDF)
12 Kripke: A Puzzle About Belief

Salmon: How to Become a Millian Heir
XVIII: Propositional Attitudes: Kripke (PDF)
13 Crimmins and Perry: The Prince and the Phone Booth

Saul: Substitution and Simple Sentences
XIX: Propositional Attitudes: Crimmins and Perry (PDF)
Section Four: Truth
14 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum

Tarski: The Semantic Conception of Truth, and the Foundations of Semantics

Stoljar: The Deflationary Theory of Truth
XX: Truth: The Liar (PDF)

XXI: Truth: Minimalism (PDF)
Section Five: Rule Following
15 Kripke: On Rules and Private Language

Millikan: Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox

Holton: Meaning and Rule Following