260037 'This Course Might Be Interesting': Epistemic Modals in Language and Thought" [*H*] (S) (WiSe 2025/2026)

We can talk about possibility in various ways. We can talk about what is consistent with the laws of logic ("Necessarily, p entails pvq") or what is consistent with the laws of physics ("What goes up, must come down"), or we can talk about what would have happened if events had gone differently ("If the UK had won Eurovision last year, the next competition would be held in London"). In this seminar, we'll consider epistemic modals, which are used to express uncertainty ("Your phone might be in the kitchen") and certainty ("Your phone must be in the kitchen"). In this seminar, we'll ask how epistemic modals relate to thought. Are they used to express beliefs that might be true or false? If so, what kind of beliefs are they and what makes them true or false? Or are they rather used to do something else entirely, e.g., to hypothesise?

Diese Veranstaltung kann als Handwerksseminar im Rahmen des Philosophischen Einstiegs gewählt werden.

Requirements for participation, required level

Abschluss des ersten Studienjahres (beide Grundkurse, Philosophischer Einstieg und Philosophisches Schreiben), sofern Sie den Kurs nicht als Handwerksseminar besuchen.