Course Description This course will focus on a contemporary debate in philosophy of language: what does it mean to refer to abstract objects in language? How is such reference possible, if it is possible at all? After introducing the notion of reference and its historical place in the philosophy of language, we will focus more narrowly on the contemporary debate about numbers, which will serve as a case study for this wider issue. Do we refer to numbers in natural language? When we use an expression like “the number 7”, are we trying to refer to an object, in the same way as we refer to concrete objects with proper names like “Frege”, or with descriptions like “the heaviest book on the shelf”? If not, how should we understand our talk about numbers? Recent literature contains some interesting answers to this question, and our main goal will be to understand this contemporary literature. Some previous familiarity with philosophy of language is advisable, but not required. A prior course in logic is also strongly advisable. Seminar information The class is held in English, and readings will be made available in English. However, a few of the readings, notably those by Frege, were originally published in German; if you are a native German speaker, please feel free to read and share your perspective on the originals! Term papers and reading notes must be written in English. Participation in seminar Attendance and active participation in the seminar is required. To prepare for the discussion, you should read the assigned material for the week, preferably more than once. You should also read the questions posted on Blackboard about this material and think about how you would answer them, even if you are not submitting a written reading note for that week’s meeting (see below). Reading notes To get credit for the course, you must submit at least five reading notes. These consist of answers to questions that you will find on Blackboard; I will post them prior to the seminar meeting each week. Each reading note should be about 1 page in length, and must be uploaded to Blackboard two days prior to the seminar meeting. Term papers Your own Studienordnung determines what else you need to do to get full credit for the seminar. If you are going to write a term paper (Hausarbeit), you need to submit a proposed essay prompt and summary of your term paper plan by the final seminar meeting. You must submit the term paper itself by 30 September. close