Universität Wien
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180126 SE Subject Matter (2024S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work

Hinweis der SPL Philosophie:

Das Abgeben von ganz oder teilweise von einem KI-tool (z.B. ChatGPT) verfassten Texten als Leistungsnachweis (z.B. Seminararbeit) ist nur dann erlaubt, wenn dies von der Lehrveranstaltungsleitung ausdrücklich als mögliche Arbeitsweise genehmigt wurde. Auch hierbei müssen direkt oder indirekt zitierte Textstellen wie immer klar mit Quellenangabe ausgewiesen werden.

Die Lehrveranstaltungsleitung kann zur Überprüfung der Autorenschaft einer abgegebenen schriftlichen Arbeit ein notenrelevantes Gespräch (Plausibilitätsprüfung) vorsehen, das erfolgreich zu absolvieren ist.
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: German, English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 14.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 21.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 11.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 18.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 25.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 02.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 16.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 23.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 06.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 13.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 20.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 27.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Aims: This course aims to provide students with an insight into a very topical issue in contemporary logic and philosophy of language. They will be able to apply knowledge acquired in previous courses in logic and philosophy of language and recognise the importance of philosophical theories beyond the immediate field, and partly even outside philosophy (in this specific case, e.g. in linguistics and computer science).

Content: The English term "subject matter" can stand for the topic a text (e.g. a book, a lecture, a conversation) deals with, or for the subject of a statement, question or command. In both cases, subject matter plays an important role in the meaning of the respective texts or sentences.

Logic and philosophy of language are currently working on a number of different formal ways of representing subject matter. Behind this formal work lie different philosophical approaches to semantics in general and to the relationship between texts and what they are about. In this seminar we will look at some key articles from the 20th century on this question, and then turn to contemporary work in this area. We will try to find our own answer to the question of what exactly "subject matter" is.

Method: Participants will work on texts in small groups and present them to the seminar. We will then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the individual theories together and try to make suggestions for improvement in each case.
Students will then choose a question and address it in their seminar paper, taking into account the literature discussed.

Assessment and permitted materials

Presentation of theories of aboutness; discussion of different views in class; seminar paper

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Grades made up of presentation 30%, active participation in class 20%, seminar paper 50%
Positive grade from 60% of full achievable score

Examination topics

Reading list

Berto, F. 2022. Topics of Thought. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Brinker, K. 2010. Linguistische Textanalyse. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin

Carnap, Rudolf. 1934/1968. Die logische Syntax der Sprache Springer Verlag; English translation: 1937. The Logical Syntax of Language (Vol. 4) Psychology Press

De Beaugrande, R. and Dressler W. U. 1981. Introduction to Text Linguistics. Longman

Demolombe, R., & Jones, A. J. 1999. On sentences of the kind “sentence ‘p’is about topic t”. In Logic, Language and Reasoning (pp. 115-133). Springer, Dordrecht.

Felka, K. (2018). Comments on Stephen Yablo’s Aboutness. Erkenntnis, 83, 1181-1194.

Fine, K. 2017a. A Theory of Truthmaker Content I: Conjunction, Disjunction and Negation. Journal of Philosophical Logic pp 1–50
- 2017b. A Theory of Truthmaker Content II: Subject-matter, Common Content, Remainder and Ground. Journal of Philosophical Logic pp 1–50
- 2020. Yablo on subject-matter. Philosophical Studies 129-171.

Goodman, N. 1961. About. Mind LXX(277), pp.1-24
Hawke, P. (2018). Theories of aboutness. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 96(4), 697-723.

Lewis, D. 1988a. Ayer’s First Empiricist Criterion of Meaning: Why Does It Fail? Analysis; reprinted in 1998. Papers in Philosophical Logic, Cambridge: CUP
- 1988b. Statements Partly About Observation. Philosophical Papers 17; reprinted in 1998. Papers in Philosophical Logic, Cambridge: CUP
- 1988c. Relevant Implication. Theoria 54; reprinted in 1998. Papers in Philosophical Logic, Cambridge: CUP

Moltmann, F. (2017). Partial content and expressions of part and whole: Discussion of Stephen Yablo: Aboutness. Philosophical Studies, 174(3), 797-808.
Osorio-Kupferblum, N. 2016. Aboutness. Critical Notice. Analysis
Perry, J., 1989. Possible worlds and subject matter. The problem of the essential indexical and other essays, 145-60.
Plebani, M. (2021). Why Aboutness Matters: Meta-Fictionalism as a Case Study. Philosophia, 49(3), 1177-1186.
Plebani, M. & Spolaore, G. 2020. Subject Matter: A Modest Proposal, The Philosophical Quarterly.
Putman, H. 1958. Formalization of the Concept "About". Philosophy of Science, 25(2), 125-130.
Reinhart, T. (1981). Pragmatics and linguistics: An analysis of sentence topics. Philosophica, 27.
Ryle, G. 1933. About. Analysis
Schipper, A., 2020. Aboutness and ontology: a modest approach to truthmakers. Philosophical Studies, 177(2), 505-533.

Tichý, P. (1975). What do we talk about?. Philosophy of Science, 42(1), 80-93.

Yablo, S., 2014. Aboutness. Princeton University Press.

Further literature will be announced in the seminar.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Su 10.03.2024 05:06