ABOUT

Prof. Gabriel Greenberg
PHIL 281: Philosophy of Mind • Fall 2018 • UCLA
When: Tuesdays, 2-5pm
Where: Dodd 325
Office hours by appointment.

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​​SYLLABUS

Course descriptions: This seminar will investigate the nature of indexicality. We will start with the semantics of indexicality, with an emphasis on the sign, content, and truth. It involves the discussion of three kinds of semantics representation: icon, symbol, and index. We will explore different types of indexicality, including I, you, that, mental indexicality, pointing, arrows, perception, context-sensitivity. We will examine the nature of content: reference, sense, concepts, character, content and beyond.

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1. What is semantics?
October 2

Handout: Introduction to Semantics

Reading:

• Portner 2005, Ch 1, Ch 2 (skip 2.5), Ch3 (3.6 and 3.7 only)
• Recommended formal background: Jacobson 2014, Section 1.5 "Sets and Functions" 

Reading notes: 
The Portner reading is intended to (re)introduce you to the key concepts of semantics and the method of semantic analysis. Please keep track of any technical questions you may have as you read. In class on Tuesday, we'll use these ideas to develop a formal semantics for Predicate Logic (without quantification). As you read, keep track of...
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Key concepts:
meaning, concept, entailment, truth-condition, truth-value, possible world, expression, proposition, object language v. meta-language, reference, denotation, predicate, argument, compositionality.

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2. Demonstratives I
October 9

Handout: Demonstratives I

Reading:

• Kaplan 1989, “Demonstratives", 481-524

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3. Demonstratives II
​October 16

Handout: Demonstratives II

Reading:

• Kaplan 1989, “Demonstratives", 524-563

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4. Demonstratives III
​October 23

Handout: Afterthoughts

​Reading:

• ​​Kaplan 1989, “Afterthoughts”

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11/4: Paper 1 due

Short paper (5pgs) on Kaplan on demonstratives.
One short meeting with me before this date.

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5a. Mental Indexicals I
​November 13

Handout: Mental Indexicals I

Reading:

• ​Perry 1979, “The Problem of the Essential Indexical”

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5b. Mental Indexicals II
​November 15

Handout: Mental Indexicals II

Reading:

• ​Millikan 2012, “Are There Mental Indexicals and Demonstratives?"

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6. Indexicality in semiotics
​November 20

Handout: Indexicality in Semiotics 

​Reading:

• ​Deacon 1997, “Symbols aren’t simple"

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7. Arrows and Pointing
​November 27

Handout: Arrows and Pointing

​Reading:

• ​Alihkani and Stone 2018, "Arrows are the Verbs of Diagrams"
• Kaplan (G) 2011 "Pointing gesture in a bird- merely instrumental or a cognitively complex behavior?"
• (optional) Kranstedt et al. 2005, "Deixis: How to Determine Demonstrated Objects Using a Pointing Cone"

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8. Context sensitivity
​December 4

Handout: Context and Language

​Reading:
Lewis, “Scorekeeping in a Language Game"

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9. Parting thoughts
​December 11

Handout: Parting thoughts

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1/4: Paper 2 due

Longer paper (15-20 pgs) on a topic related to indexicality.

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