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University of Parma
Course catalogue
Università degli Studi di Parma
course catalogue

THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND THE MIND
cod. 24125

Academic year 2008/09
1° year of course - Second semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Filosofia e teoria dei linguaggi (M-FIL/05)
Field
Filosofia morale, teoretica, ermeneutica
Type of training activity
Basic
40 hours
of face-to-face activities
5 credits
hub:
course unit
in - - -
lectures timetable unavailable
exam calls
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Learning objectives

The aim of the course is for students to get to the heart of contemporary philosophical research.

Prerequisites

Only students who have already acquired 10 learning credits in Theories of Language and of the Mind or in Philosophy of Language are admitted to the course.

Course unit content

Course title: Modalities and possible worlds. <br />
<br />
The course will be held in collaboration with the Philosophy of Language course held by Prof. Marco Santambrogio, and sets out to examine one of the themes at the centre of the twentieth-century reflection on language: modality. We are all led to believe that for example, we could have acted differently, but that we could not have been plants. Yet what is the meaning of a statement such as ‘A could have been P’? What are necessity and possibility? The course will examine some of the main answers that were given to these questions during last century. In particular, it will seek to understand the reasons that have led, in this context, to the recovery of the Leibnizian notion of the possible world, and will ask: Is the analysis of modality in terms of possible worlds, so widespread today, truly satisfactory? If so, what is a possible world? If not, how instead should one account for modality? <br />

Full programme

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Bibliography

Provided during the course.

Teaching methods

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Assessment methods and criteria

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Other information

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