PHL2120 - Language, truth and power
6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL
Undergraduate Faculty of Arts
Leader(s): Karen Green
Offered
Not offered in 2009
Synopsis
The unit will concentrate on two major approaches to the study of language. The structuralist approach which can be traced back to Saussure, and the referential realist approach which can be traced back to Aristotle. It will begin with an introduction to structuralism and the idea that language structures reality. It will move on to the referential semantics introduced by Aristotle and further developed by Frege. Various views concerning truth will be discussed including the view that truth is correspondence with reality and the contrasting position that truth is related to power. www.arts.monash.edu.au/phil/undergraduate/lateryear.html
Assessment
Written work: 60% (2500 words)
Exam: 40%
Contact hours
2 hours (1 lecture and 1 tutorial) per week
Prerequisites
A first-year sequence in philosophy or comparative literature, cultural studies and critical theory or linguistics
Prohibitions
CLS2120