Philosophy of Language

Language looks transparent until you ask what makes a sentence mean what it does, or refer to what it refers to, or count as true — this course pushes on exactly those questions, working through the major theories that try to pin down meaning, reference, and truth. After a logic refresher to fix the formal vocabulary, you'll spend the term reading the canonical arguments (Frege, Russell, and their successors) and writing three essays where you defend or dismantle specific positions. It's the philosophy department's bridge between logic and the rest of analytic philosophy, so the skills here carry directly into mind, epistemology, and metaphysics.