문제가 될시 삭제하겠습니다.
2023년 봄학기 하버드에서 학부 및 대학원생 위주로 진행된 언어철학 강의 기말 시험 문제입니다. 서강 올빼미 선생님들을 통해 많은 것을 배웠는데, 딱히 나눌 게 없어서, 이런 거라도 나누어봅니다. 스스로 내용 정리하기에 도움이 될 듯 합니다. (시험이 다 끝나서, 문제 될 건 없을 것 같은데, 혹시라도 문제가 될 시 삭제하겠습니다. )
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At the beginning of "On Sense and Reference," Frege argues that identity statements pose insuperable problems for accounts of language that only consider words and things in the world that they refer to as the elements of an account of meaning. What feature of identity statements does Frege focus on? What hypohteses does he consider and reject, and why does he reject them?
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In "On Sense and Reference," Frege uses the analogy of viewing the moon through a telescope to explain how senses are different from mental images. Please describe the analogy, and explain how it is supposed to elucidate the difference between sense and mental image.
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Present two examples that illustrate Frege's Function/Argument analysis from "Function and Concept". The first example should illustrate a first-level function applying to an object. The second example should include a second-level function. For each example, say which expression corresponds to the object, first-level, and second-level function, describe under what conditions the function that applies to an argument returns the value "True".
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Consider the sentence:"The present King of France is not bald."Explain why on Frege's view, this sentence is predicted to be neither true nor false, and why on Russell's view, it is ambiguous, where one of the readings is false and the other true.
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According to Russell in Knowledge by acquaintance and by description, the sentence "Widener Library has multiple underground levels" expresses a proposition that differs from the form of the sentence significantly, since the sentence looks to be a simple subject-predicate sentence. What are the two steps that, according to Russell, we need to take in order to correctly represent the proposition in the thinker's mind when they understand that sentence?
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Describe Russell’s theory of intentionality and how it differs from the resemblance theory of the empiricists like Locke who came before him.
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Consider the belief ascription "Ralph believes that Ortcutt is a spy." That ascription has a de dicto and a de re reading. Please describe the difference between the two readings. Then please describe a situation in which the de re reading is true but the de dicto reading is not.
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Perry calls his paper "The Problem of the Essential Indexical"Using the example of the shopper spilling sugar, please explain- how indexicals figure into the issues that Perry discusses; and
- in what sense the indexical is essential.
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What are meanings, according to Strawson. Use the example of "The Present King of France is bald" to show how Strawson's view allows him to resist Russell's argument for the conclusion that names are covert definite descriptions.
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On Kaplan’s theory of indexicals, there are two different types of meanings---content and character. Briefly state the difference between them and analyse how will Kaplan’s notion of content help to explain why the following conversation is silly:
[A: “I am hungry”, B: “No, I am not hungry.”] While the following conversation is perfectly reasonable: [A: “I am hungry,” B: “No, you are not hungry.”] -
Consider the sentence: "If kangaroos didn't have tails, they'd topple over".Please explain what that sentence means, according to Lewis. Then explain why strengthening the antecedent fails (be sure to say what "strengthening the antecedent" is, give an example that illustrates its failure, and explain why Lewis' semantics predicts that strengthening the antecedent is not a valid form of inference.
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Consider the modal claim “Bernhard Nickel is necessarily rational.”Explain the difference between what Quine in "Three Grades of Modal Involvement" calls the first and third grades of modal involvement, and describe how that claim would be treated in each.Please be sure to explain why the first-grade of modal involvement treats modal claims as projections of our linguistic practice.
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What is Kripke's modal argument in Naming and Necessity? Please illustrate it with the name "Aristotle" and the description "The last great philosopher of antiquity". Please also explain the "wide-scope" response to the modal argument.
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What is the semantic argument? Illustrate it with the Goedel/Schmidt case.
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Explain the difference between “a priori” and “necessary" according to Kripke. Give an example of a statement that is necessary-but-a-posteriori, and one that is contingent-but-a-priori.
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Please explain why Grice's introduction of the notion of implicature brings with it the possibility of simplifying our overall account of language, including both semantics and pragmatics? As part of your answer, please be sure to say what semantics and pragmatics are.
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Present the Gricean derivation of how an assertion of "Miles had green beans or a baked potato" can produce the implicature that Miles did not eat both. Be sure to explicitly state your assumption about the meaning of "or", and mention all of the Gricean maxims that are needed for the derivation.
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Please explain what, according to Stalnaker, is conveyed by an assertion of "Hesperus is Phosphors" in a situation where that is informative to an audience. Please include in your explanation a two-dimensional matrix that illustrates what the speakers in the conversation are assumed to be taking for granted, and what options are open to them. Your explanation should also include why the assertion needs to be reinterpreted to be the diagonal proposition.
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Why, according to Austin, is it a mistake to theorize about the meaning of language only in terms of its representational function?
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Please give an example of an assertion that requires presupposition accommodation in the sense of Lewis from Scorekeeping in a Language Game. Be sure to say what the presupposition is, why accommodation is required, and how accommodation is different from accepting an assertion.
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In what respects is pornography similar to incitement according to Langton & West in Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game? Why, given their aims, is it important to establish this claim of similarity?
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State Antony's Conventionality Test for determining whether an effect of a speech act is illocutionary. By invoking the difference between conventional and de facto subordination, explain how Antony arrives at the conclusion that the subordination that Langton is concerned with is a perlocutionary, not illocutionary, effect of pornography.
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Why, according to West, is it insufficient to protect only the locutionary abilities of speakers if one wants to protect free speech?
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Why, according to boyd, does the possibility of context collapse create an incentive to display only the least controversial aspects of one's life online?
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Why, according to Nguyen, is the gamification of communication on Twitter a problem? Your answer should cover two elements: how gamification leads to value homogenization, and why value homogenization is bad.
