260034 Puzzles of Reference (GradS) (WiSe 2025/2026)

It is a fundamental feature of language that some expressions refer to objects or individuals. For example, my name refers to me, and “Rome” refers to the capital of Italy. Although this may seem straightforward, the notion of reference gives rise to a number of philosophical and linguistic puzzles. In this seminar, we will explore some of these puzzles, focusing in particular on cases where the use of referential expressions appears to lead to a failure of an inference rule from classical logic known as Leibniz’s Law - also referred to in some logical systems as Identity Elimination.

--

Dieser Kurs wird zwar auf Englisch angeboten, Beiträge in deutscher Sprache sind aber ebenfalls möglich, da die Lehrperson Deutsch versteht.

Requirements for participation, required level

Abschluss des ersten Studienjahres (beide Grundkurse, Philosophischer Einstieg und Philosophisches Schreiben).