Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of Linguistics (PHIL11189)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences | 
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) | 
Availability | Available to all students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 20 | 
ECTS Credits | 10 | 
 
 
| Summary | A postgraduate-level introduction to philosophical analysis of issues in linguistic science. | 
 
| Course description | 
    
    Philosophy of science as it applies to linguistics; the ontology of language, languages, words, and expressions; grammars and syntax; language and thought; language and the external world; the normativity of language; learnability and language acquisition; intuition and the nature of the evidence for linguistic theories.
    
    
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites | 
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Co-requisites |  | 
 
| Prohibited Combinations |  | 
Other requirements |  None | 
 
 
Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | None | 
 
		| High Demand Course? | 
		Yes | 
     
 
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |   
Learning Outcomes 
    On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
    
        - acquainted with several of the kinds of arguments used in contemporary analytic philosophy
 - appreciate the character of a selection of the kinds of arguments used in modern theoretical linguistics
 - formulate and defend or critique positions on key controversies in the philosophy of linguistic science
 - evaluate the state of the literature in philosophy of linguistics
 
     
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Reading List 
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles on 'Philosophy of Linguistics', 'Concepts', 'Innateness and language', and 'Reflective equilibrium'; 
 
Selections from works by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Saul Kripke, Noam Chomsky, Crispin Wright, Ruth Millikan, David Lewis, Charles Hockett, Jerry Fodor, Fiona Cowie, and Michael Devitt; |   
 
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | 
Rigorous reasoning about often difficult and controversial theoretical material and philosophical analysis. | 
 
| Keywords | language,linguistics,philosophy,epistemology,metaphysics | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Brian Rabern 
Tel:  
Email:  | 
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble 
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188 
Email:  | 
   
 
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