HFIK03713U FILO, Module 2: Philosophical Period: Analytic Philosophy of Language

Philosophy of language is one of the main currents of 20th century philosophy, often described as the ”linguistic turn” in philosophy. In analytic philosophy, in which language was a dominant theme, this development featured two aspects: First, a investigation of language as an item of interest in its own right, secondly, the use of the insigts thus gained as a tool for the solution of philosophical problems in general. The key topic was the nature of linguistic meaning.

                      In this course, focus will be on philosophy of language in the former sense, in which philosophy serves the role often played as a ”birth-maiden of the sciences”, in this case linguistics; that is, to undertake a basic conceptual analysis of a field of phenomena for later empirical, scientific investigations to build on. The perspective will be partly historical, partly systematic, starting with the seminal contributions by Gottlob Frege in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with their formalist approach to language, inspired by Frege’s own inventions in logic. From this point of departure, philosophy of language would move on along a path that would gradually include broader aspects of language: Pragmatics, speech act theory, meaning as use, etc. Examining contributions from such key authors as Wittgenstein, Austin, Davidson, Quine, Lewis, Dummett, and their later followers, we shall examine to what extent the Fregean strategy for developing a theory of meaning is still viable.