PHI 260 - Philosophy of Language

3 credit(s)
When judges declare a defendant “guilty,” the word itself converts the presumed innocent person into a criminal. Language can do things in the world (like marry people or determine that a pitch is a strike) and communicate complex thoughts. How do words pick out time, places, individuals, and discrete ideas? How do those words carry ideas and meaning from one person to another? How do words do things in the world? Is something lost in the translation between different languages (and is that different from non-translated communication)? This course will cover basic concepts in the philosophy of language designed to answer these questions.

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