55-01.211.306 The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T)

Course offering details
Instructors: Dr. Lukas Skiba
Event type:
Introductory seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
3,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
1 | 28
Allocation scheme:
Phil_Standard_WS1415
Comments/contents: The first-person pronoun "I" is a short word with a long history of philosophical discussion. Many philosophers take it – and the first-person perspective associated with it – to play a fundamentally important role in language and cognition. For example, the first-person perspective is often taken to play a special role in action explanation: we cannot properly explain why subjects act the way they do without ascribing to them certain "I"-thoughts by means of which they locate themselves in their environment. What is more, thoughts involving the first-person perspective are sometimes said to be in principle incommunicable, graspable by one person and one person alone.

The main aims of this course are:

  1. to introduce some of the main contemporary debates in the philosophy of language and mind surrounding the first-person perspective
  2. to gain a better understanding of the historical background (to be found primarily in the history of analytic philosophy) against which the contemporary debates take place

We will begin by trying to decipher Frege’s uncharacteristically obscure but exceedingly influential remarks on the first-person pronoun. Then we turn our attention, via the reactions to Frege by Perry and Evans, to more recent work. Among other things, we will be concerned with the hotly contested question of whether “I” gives rise to thoughts that are essentially indexical, i.e. thoughts whose role in cognition differs fundamentally from that of thoughts which can be expressed without any indexical material. While many contemporary philosophers, such as e.g. Perry and Bermudez, answer this question positively, others, such as e.g. Magidor and Capellen & Dever, take this special status of “I”-thoughts to be a mere myth that needs to be debunked.

A requirement for participation is the willingness to give a short presentation of one of the papers on the reading list.
Literature: No prior reading is required. The reading list for the seminar will likely include the following:

  • Frege, Gottlob (1918): "Der Gedanke". Translated into English as "The Thought" in Mind 65: 289-311.
  • Perry, John (1977): “Frege on Demonstratives” In Philosophical Review 86: 474-497.
  • Perry, John (1979): “The Essential Indexical”. In Noûs 13 (1):3-21.
  • Evans, Gareth (1981): “Understanding Demonstratives”. In Herman Parret (ed.) Meaning and Understanding. Clarendon Press. pp. 280--304.
  • Selected Chapters from Capellen, Hermann & Dever, Josh (2013): The Inessential Indexical. Oxford University Press.
  • Magidor, Ofra (2015): “The Myth of the De Se”. Philosophical Perspectives 29:249-283.
  • Stojanovic, Isidora (2016): “Speaking about Oneself” In Manuel García-Carpintero and Stephan Torre (eds.) About Oneself. Oxford University Press.
  • Ninan, Dilip “What is the Problem of De Se Attitudes?” In Manuel García-Carpintero and Stephan Torre (eds.) About Oneself. Oxford University Press.
  • Selected Chapters from Bermudez, Jose Luis (2017): Understanding “I”. Oxford University Press.

Class session overview
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2
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7
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9
10
11
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13
14
 
Instructors
Dr. Lukas Skiba
Appointments
Date From To Room Instructors Appointments
1
Date Tue, 3. Nov. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
2
Date Tue, 10. Nov. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
3
Date Tue, 17. Nov. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
4
Date Tue, 24. Nov. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
5
Date Tue, 1. Dec. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
6
Date Tue, 8. Dec. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
7
Date Tue, 15. Dec. 2020
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
8
Date Tue, 5. Jan. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
9
Date Tue, 12. Jan. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
10
Date Tue, 19. Jan. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
11
Date Tue, 26. Jan. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
12
Date Tue, 2. Feb. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
13
Date Tue, 9. Feb. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
14
Date Tue, 16. Feb. 2021
To 16:15
To 17:45
Room digital
Instructors Dr. Lukas Skiba
Exams in context of modules
Module(start semester)/ Course Requirement combination Exam Date Instructors Compulsory pass
Phil BA4 Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie (WiSe 16/17) / PhilK_PS-BA4_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Individual exam 10 Individual exam Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
11 Individual exam Fri, 31. Dec. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
12 Individual exam Th, 31. Mar. 2022, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
13 Individual exam Fri, 6. Jan. 2023, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BA4 (EF-Math) Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie (SuSe 17) / PhilK_PS-BA4_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Paper 8 Paper Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BA4 (EF-VWL) Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie (SuSe 17) / PhilK_PS-BA4_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Paper 8 Paper Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BA4 (LG) Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie (WiSe 16/17) / PhilK_PS-BA4_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Individual exam 9 Individual exam Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
10 Individual exam Fri, 31. Dec. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
11 Individual exam Th, 31. Mar. 2022, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
12 Individual exam Fri, 6. Jan. 2023, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BA4 (WB-Phys) Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie (SuSe 17) / PhilK_PS-BA4_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Paper 8 Paper Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BAP Profilmodul (WiSe 16/17) / PhilK_PS-BAP_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Individual exam 11 Individual exam Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
12 Individual exam Fri, 31. Dec. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
13 Individual exam Th, 31. Mar. 2022, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
14 Individual exam Fri, 6. Jan. 2023, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Phil BP1 (LG) Profilmodul 1 (WiSe 16/17) / PhilK_PS-BP1_Kern The First-Person Perspective in Language and Thought (T) Individual exam 9 Individual exam Th, 30. Sep. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
10 Individual exam Fri, 31. Dec. 2021, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
11 Individual exam Th, 31. Mar. 2022, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
12 Individual exam Fri, 6. Jan. 2023, 00:01 - 23:59 Dr. Lukas Skiba Yes
Course specific exams
Description Date Instructors Mandatory
1. Completed coursework Time tbd No