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

Assignments

Weekly assigned questions on the reading are discussed in class and listed in the table below. A short essay (3-4 pages) of one question is due the following week. A 10 page final paper is due at the end of term.

SES # TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS
1 Introduction  
2 ''Boston'' Designates ''Boston'': Quasi-quotation and such

Frege: Foundations of Arithmetic (1884)		 (PDF)
3-5 Frege: Foundations of Arithmetic (continued) (1884) (PDF)
6-7 Frege: "Function and Concept" (1891)

Frege: "On Concept and Object" (1892)		 (PDF)
8 Frege: "On Sense and Reference" (1892) (PDF)
9 Frege: "The Thought: a Logical Enquiry" (1918) (PDF)
10-11 Russell: "On Denoting" (1905)

Russell: "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" (1918)		 (PDF)
12 Russell: The Problems of Philosophy (1912) (PDF)
13-15 Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) Part 1 (PDF)
Part 2 (PDF)
16 Moore: Principia Ethica (1903) (PDF)
17-19 Moore: "The Refutation of Idealism" (1903)

Moore: "A Defence of Common Sense" (1925)

Moore: "External and Internal Relations" (1919)		 (PDF)
20 Wittgenstein: The Blue and Brown Books (1934) (PDF)
21-22 Ayer: Language, Truth, and Logic (1936)

Tarski: "The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages" (1935)		 (PDF)
23-25 Wittgenstein: Philosophical Investigations (1953) (PDF)
26 Austin: Sense and Sensibilia (1962)

Ayer: Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (excerpt) (1940)		 (PDF)