Undergraduate - UnitATS3879 - Philosophy of language

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Philosophy
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	TBA

Synopsis

This unit provides an introduction to some major themes in recent philosophy of language and mind. Among the topics to be covered are: theories of reference and truth; theories of meaning; and theories of performative utterances. These topics have come to be of central concern in contemporary analytical philosophy and are often crucial in modern debates in fields as diverse as ethics, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. One aim of this unit is to provide essential background for students intending to go on in philosophy. For further information see: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/philosophy/ugrad/units

Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit should:

be able to engage with contemporary debates in the philosophy of language,
have acquired some facility with the use of logical techniques in the discussion of language,
be familiar with the technical vocabulary and standard arguments developed by philosophers who have studied the functioning of language.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 50%
Exam: 50%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Assoc.Prof Karen Green

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Philosophy

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of second-year Arts units. As this is a third-year level unit, it is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two second-year level units in Philosophy.

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/philosophy/ugrad/units/phl3590.php