Phil 448/547 Winter 2010 Partial Schedule of Readings

 

Here is a partial list of things we will read for this course and a proposed order to do the reading.  Some (many?) of the details have been left out and will be filled in later.   You should expect further works to be added on to these.  (Ayer 1959 is our recommended logical positivism anthology.  Rorty 1992 is our recommended linguistic turn anthology.  Lyas 1971 is the Philosophy and Linguistics anthology.) 

 

Readings:

 

B. Russell (1924) "Logical Atomism".  This is in Marsh (1956) and Ayer (1959).  Those for whom this topic is exciting and important might consider reading RussellÕs (1918) "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism".  Or even (shudder) Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)

 

M. Schlick (1930) "The Turning Point in Philosophy" (in Ayer, 1959).

(1932) "Positivism and Realism" (in Ayer, 1959).

(1930) "The Future of Philosophy" (in Rorty, 1992). 

 

R. Carnap (1932) "The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language". (in Ayer, 1959).

       (1934) "On the Character of Philosophical Problems" (in Rorty, 1992)

       (1950) "Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology" (in Rorty, 1992)

 

[If you have the energy and interest, you would be well off if you read all the Schlick and Carnap articles.  But do try to read at least two Schlicks or two Carnaps, and at least one of the other.]

 

O. Neurath (1932) "Protocol Sentences" (translated in Ayer, 1959)

 

A.J. Ayer (1947) Language, Truth, and Logic (2nd Edition).  The second edition has a longish, new introduction, with a new formulation of "the principle of verification".  It is mostly the introduction that I want us to read.  The rest of the book is to be read by keeners or for those who are interested in a specific topic (e.g., ethics) and how the positivists dealt with it.  [The first edition was 1936 and made quite a stir in England].

 

Michael Friedman Reconsidering Logical Positivism (some selections)

 

[Students who are keen on Logical Positivism could read many further things in the Ayer (1959) anthology, the Rorty (1992) anthology, and also CarnapÕs The Logical Structure of the World (at least the methodological material at the beginning) and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy.]

 

P. Hempel (1950) "The Empiricist Criterion of Meaning" (in Ayer, 1959)

 

G. Ryle (1946) "Philosophical Arguments" (in Ayer, 1959)

(1932) "Systematically Misleading Expressions" (in Rorty, 1992)

(1953) "Ordinary Language"

--and J. Findley (1961) "Use, Usage and Meaning"

 

N. Malcolm (1952) "Moore and Ordinary Language" (in Rorty, 1992)

 

F. Waismann (1956) "How I see Philosophy" (in Ayer, 1959)

 

Somewhere in here we will be talking a bit about the "non-systematic" ordinary language philosophers, and I will try to find an interesting work from them.

 

J. Passmore (1961) "Arguments to Meaninglessness" (in Rorty, 1992)

 

Something by Austin (maybe from How to do Things With Words)

 

There are three articles about Austin in the Rorty volume (by Urmson, by Hampshire, and by Urmson & Warnock)

 

Mates (1958) "On the Verification of Statements about Ordinary Language" (in Lyas,1971)

 

Cavell (1958) "Must We Mean What We Say? " (in Lyas,1971)

 

Some selection of further articles in Lyas (1971)