Topic. Analytic philosophy is a loose tradition unified neither by adherence to any particular set of views nor by use of any particular philosophical method, but rather by a series of historical connections to the work of a number of early twentieth century philosophers. This course will be an introduction to analytic philosophy via the study of selected works of some of these philosophers: G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and A. J. Ayer.
    These philosophers touched on virtually every area of philosophy; depending on how far we get, we will examine their contributions to metaphysics (with special attention to logical atomism), epistemology (with special attention to the problem of skepticism about the external world and the explanation of a priori knowledge), the philosophy of language (with special attention to the existence and nature of propositions and the distinction between surface form and logical form, the use of linguistic theses to dissolve metaphysical puzzles, and the verificationist criterion of meaning), the philosophy of mind (with special attention to the sense datum theory of perception), the philosophy of mathematics (with special attention to the logicist reduction of mathematics to logic), and ethics (with special attention to the emotivist claim that ethical, political, and aesthetic sentences are expressions of attitudes which are neither true nor false).

Texts. Students will be required to purchase Wittgenstein'sTractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Ayer's Language, Truth, and Logic. Other readings will be made available in PDF form via links from the syllabus.

Assignments. There will be two short papers, one longer paper, and a midterm and a final exam. The short papers will be worth 10% of the grade each, and the longer paper will be worth 25% of the final grade. Late papers will be penalized 3 points/day, including weekends. The midterm and final exams will each be worth 20% of the grade. The remaining 15% of the grade will be given on the basis of class attendance and participation. In all of their assignments, students are responsible for compliance with the University’s honor code, information about which is available here. You should also review the philosophy department guidelines regarding plagiarism.