Philosophy of Language: Ordinary Language Philosophy
Graphic: Buket Korkut-Raptis
You may already have encountered Ludwig Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument, J. L. Austin's Speech Act Theory, Gilbert Ryle's notion of a 'category mistake,' or Stanley Cavell's explanation of how people become skeptics. The ordinary language tradition included some of the most compelling and memorable figures of twentieth century philosophy, and a number of their ideas have become common currency. But there is much more to their legacy than the familiar high points. In learning our way around that tradition, we will be trying not only to understand their solutions to the many philosophical problems they took on, but to figure out how their arguments worked -- in the service of adding their modes of argumentation to our own philosophical toolkit.
PHIL 5480/6480
Fall 2022
Time: Wed. 2:00-5:00