This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Lecture Notes

The lecture notes are closely tied to the readings and are designed to help the student comprehend and consider the issues presented.

WEEK # TOPICS LECTURE NOTES
Section One: Sense and Reference, Names and Descriptions
1 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum I: Introductory (PDF)

II: On Sense and Reference (PDF)
2 Russell: On Denoting

Russell: Descriptions
III: Russell on Denoting (PDF)
3 Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism IV: Quine's Two Dogmas (PDF)
4-5 Kripke: Naming and Necessity

Putnam: Meaning and Reference
V: Naming and Necessity, Lecture One (PDF)

VI: Naming and Necessity, Lecture Two (PDF)

VII: Naming and Necessity, Lecture Three (PDF)
6 Strawson: On Referring

Donnellan: Reference and Definite Descriptions

Kripke: Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference
VIII: Strawson and Donnellan on Referring and Denoting (PDF)

IX: Kripke on Donnellan (PDF)
7 von Fintel: Would you believe it? The King of France is Back!

Yablo: Non-Catastropic Presupposition Failure

Perry: The Problem of the Essential Indexical

Lewis: Attitudes De Dicto and De Se
X: Presupposition and Empty Names (PDF)

XI: Indexicals and De Se Attitudes (PDF)
Section Two: Pragmatics
8 Austin: Performative Utterances

Grice: Logic and Conversation
XII: Austin on Peformatives (PDF)

XIII: Grice: Implicature (PDF)
9 Lewis: Scorekeeping in a Language Game

Langton: Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts

Langton and West: Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game
XIV: Lewis: Scorekeeping (PDF)

XV: Langton: Unspeakable Acts (PDF)
10 Lewis: Languages and Language XVI: Lewis: Language and Languages (PDF)
Section Three: Propositional Attitudes
11 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum

Davidson: On Saying That
XVII: Propositional Attitudes: Frege and Davidson (PDF)
12 Kripke: A Puzzle About Belief

Salmon: How to Become a Millian Heir
XVIII: Propositional Attitudes: Kripke (PDF)
13 Crimmins and Perry: The Prince and the Phone Booth

Saul: Substitution and Simple Sentences
XIX: Propositional Attitudes: Crimmins and Perry (PDF)
Section Four: Truth
14 Frege: On Sense and Nominatum

Tarski: The Semantic Conception of Truth, and the Foundations of Semantics

Stoljar: The Deflationary Theory of Truth
XX: Truth: The Liar (PDF)

XXI: Truth: Minimalism (PDF)
Section Five: Rule Following
15 Kripke: On Rules and Private Language

Millikan: Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox

Holton: Meaning and Rule Following