PHIL 735.001 – Advanced Studies in Epistemology

Instructor: Ram Neta. This course meets T 3:30 – 6:00 p.m. in PE 2066.

In his book “Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language”, Saul Kripke sets out a puzzle concerning the possibility of representation.  In this seminar, we will examine various influential solutions to this puzzle, and attempt to figure out what lesson we can learn from the puzzle.  In particular, we will consider solutions proposed by Ruth Millikan, David Lewis, Crispin Wright, Paul Boghossian, and more recent authors.  All students in this seminar will be required to give presentations on the material, and to submit a term paper at the end of the term.  The presentations should, ideally, help you to develop your term paper, and your term paper should, ideally, serve as the basis of a publication.