Basic information
Time and location
Class sessions will be held on Mondays from 15:15 to 18:45 in the Philosophy Department, Franziskanergasse 1, HS 302 (4th floor).
Course description
When we say that a sentence (or a proposition, or a belief) is true, we plausibly are attributing to that sentence (or proposition, or belief) a certain property: the property of truth. But what is this property, exactly? Intuitively, the answer seems simple: truth is just agreement with the facts of the world. But this on its own is only an uninformative platitude, and developing it into a full theory of truth turns out to be more difficult than one might think – doing so would require both explaining what sort of object a fact is and making sense of what it is for a thing of that sort to be in agreement with a sentence. Can we meet these requirements and thereby develop our platitude into a satisfactory theory, or are we going to need some different account of what the property of truth consists in? Or might we have been mistaken in assuming that truth is really a property in the first place? In this course we’ll investigate possible answers to these questions by examining historical and contemporary work on the nature of truth.
Structure
The course will combine lecture and discussion. Sessions will generally begin with a bit of lecture introducing relevant background information and clarifying material from the week’s reading, after which we’ll move into a period of student-led critical discussion.
Goals
The central aim of the course is to enable students to think analytically about some fundamental philosophical problems related to the nature of truth and to develop the capacity to present their own views in this area concisely and rigorously. More specifically, by the end of the course you’re expected to be able to:
- show a deep understanding of the contemporary debate on the nature of truth;
- articulate clearly the relative merits and defects of each of the main approaches to theorizing about truth;
- develop in a sustained manner your own criticisms of some of these ideas and arguments and initiate original lines of thought;
- show a deep understanding of the connections between philosophical theorizing about truth and other areas of philosophy; and
- show an improved capacity for making complex ideas understandable in your philosophical writing and in your public speaking.
Materials
Readings for the course are available at our Schedule page. To access any of these readings, you must be (i) logged in to your University account and (ii) enrolled in this course (or otherwise explicitly granted access by me – if you need access, send me an email). You can log in to your University account here.
Policies
Work and expectations
Attendance is mandatory.
Discussion periods will be student-led. Starting in the third week of the course, one or more students will be responsible for chairing each session: directing the discussion based on the week’s readings and students’ responses to those readings (see below). We’ll decide on a chairing rotation early in the semester, and it will be added to our Schedule page.
In order to facilitate discussion (and to clarify to me what points need to be emphasized in lecture), you’ll be required to submit a short response to each week’s assigned readings: two questions or comments, 150 words at most. These responses must show that you’re engaging with the readings. You should email your response to me and to the discussion chair(s) by the end of the day on the Friday before each class session.
The other assignments for the course will be a short midterm paper (1000–1500 words) and a slightly longer final paper (1500–2000 words).
Grading
Your grade in the course will be calculated as follows:
- Chairing and class participation (including attendance): 20%
- Weekly reading responses: 20%
- Midterm paper: 20%
- Final paper: 40%
Academic support
If you have any problems with the course, please do get in touch with me. If you need to talk about any problems affecting your work, please contact the Head of the Department, Alexander Hieke (alexander[dot]hieke[at]plus[dot]ac[dot]at).