Learning objectives
Students will acquire a good command of an interesting problem, looming large in contemporary philosophy of language and metaphysics. They will learn how to examine and assess philosophical arguments.
The course will mainly be run as an ongoing seminar, in which students are expected to present and discuss some work among those selected by the instructor. This ought to improve on their ability to state their own views and defend them with good arguments. Learning abilities and a general capacity to analyse fairly complex written texts will also be enhanced.
This is clearly related to all the so-called Dublin descriptors.
Prerequisites
The course is meant to address students with some elementary knowledge of contemporary philosophy of language and, in particular, of the literature on direct reference. Normally, such knowledge can be acquired in a three years undergraduate course in philosophy.
Course unit content
The topic of this course is the nature of artefacts – if they have any. There are various facets to the problem. First, the semantic status of the terms referring to artefacts will be discussed. The semantics of such terms will be compared with that of proper names and names of natural kinds, as it appears in light of discussions on direct reference. Subsequently, the general metaphysics of artefacts will be examined, keeping in mind the naturalistic theory, due to David Kaplan, of a particular kind of artefacts – namely, the words of a natural language. These questions will be asked: can Kaplan’s theory be extended to other kinds of artefacts? What artefacts resist that naturalistic account? The case of games will be discussed, about which a vast literature exists. Finally, Nelson Goodman’s classification of works of art based on the notion of authenticity will be re-examined.
Full programme
This course is one half of the integrated course “Mind and Language”, coordinated by professor Andrea Bianchi. The vote got in this course contributes 50% of the final vote of the integrated course.
Bibliography
Reference will be made to the following works, among others:
- Goodman Nelson, 2008, I linguaggi dell’arte, Il Saggiatore.
- Kaplan, David, 1990, “Words”, Journal of Philosophy.
- Kripke Saul, 1980, Nome e necessità, Boringhieri.
- Schwartz, S.P., 1977, (ed.), Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds, Cornell University Press.
- Wittgenstein Ludwig, 2009, Ricerche filosofiche, Einaudi.
During the course, which will mainly be run as an ongoing seminar, other works might become relevant.
Teaching methods
The instructor will give lectures only at the earliest stages of the course. Later on, the course will mainly take the form of an ongoing seminar. Students will be asked to read, and present to the class, short articles selected by the instructor.
In the end part of the course, students will choose a topic for a short essay, of the length of approximately ten pages. Choice of the topic must be approved of by the instructor. The essay will consist in giving arguments for a clearly stated claim.
Assessment methods and criteria
At the end of the course, students must write an essay, approximately of ten typewritten pages, probing a particular issue related to the general problem of the nature of artefacts. In the essay, students will defend some claim of their own choice, possibly with convincing arguments but, in any case, with the greatest clarity. There is no oral exam.
Other information
Students of the Universities of Modena and Ferrara will be able to attend the course online, using the software provided by their university. They will be able to take active part in the discussion in real time.
