Foad Dizadji-Bahmani

Optional for BSc Philosophy and Economics, BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, BSc Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc Politics and Philosophy and BSc Economics. This course is available as an outside option and to General Course students.

PH103 Reason, Knowledge and Values

The aim of the course is to give an overview of some central themes in analytic philosophy. The content of the course is accumulative and charts, broadly speaking, the rise of logical positivism, its problems and its ramifications in contemporary philosophy. However, the emphasis will be on developing a sharp understanding of the central concepts, arguments and the logical relationships between different ideas rather than amassing a detailed historical narrative. In particular, we will focus on two themes associated with the "analytic turn": the attempt to make language more logically perspicuous and (perhaps, thereby) to rid philosophy of metaphysics. In so doing, we will encounter the works of some of the most prominent analytic philosophers of the 20th century, including Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Putnam, Kripke and Lewis.

Topics may vary by year.

Twenty one-hour lectures (MT and LT) and twenty one-hour classes (MT and LT).

Students will be expected to write two essays per term and to give class papers.

Readings include some of the following: B. Russell, Problems of Philosophy; L. Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic W.V.O. Quine, From a Logical Point of View; K; S. Kripke, Naming and Necessity; L. Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations; D. Lewis, On the Plurality of Worlds;

A three-hour written examination in the ST (100%).