382 Metaphysics and Mind Fall 2020

W 12-3
Professor Michelle Montague
Email: montague@austin.utexas.edu

Course description: This course will be concerned with the metaphysics of properties and
relations with an eye towards how it impacts the metaphysics of intentionality, and in
particular, in what sense intentionality is a relational phenomenon.

Grading policy: one 20-page paper and one short presentation.

Week 1: W/Aug 26 Introduction

Weeks 2&3: W/Sept 9 & W/Sept16 Frege & Russell

Required Readings:

Frege, G. (1891). ‘Function and Concept’. In Properties (eds) D.H. Mellor and A. Oliver.
Oxford: OUP.

Russell, B. (1912). The Problems of Philosophy. ‘The World of Universals’ (ch 9), ‘On
our Knowledge of Universals’ (ch 10), ‘Truth and Falsehood’ (ch 12)

Kenny, A. (1973). Wittgenstein, chs 1-2: pp. 1-34 ‘The Legacy of Frege and Russell’.
Pelican Books.

Recommended Readings
Frege, G. (1892). ‘On Sinn and Bedeutung’
Russell, B. ( 1905). ‘On Denoting’

Weeks 4 & 5: W/Sept 16 & W/Sept 23 Wittgenstein: Pictorial Theory and Logical
Atomism

Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus. 1-4.05, 4.2-4.3

Kenny, A. (1973). Wittgenstein. chapters 4-5: pp. 44-81.

Fogelin, R. (1976/1987). Wittgenstein. chapters 1-3: pp. 3-38. Routledge& Kegan Paul.

Week 6: W/Sept 30 Contemporary commentary on Wittgenstein

Sullivan, P. (1991). ‘A Version of the Picture Theory’

Johnston, C. (2009). ‘Tractarian Objects and Logical Categories’. Synthese, 167(1): 145-
161.

Recommended Reading:
Proops, I. (2005/2017). ‘Wittgenstein’s Logical Atomism’. Stanford Encyclopedia of
philosophy.
Ishiguro, H. ‘Use and Reference of Names’.

Weeks 7&8: W/Oct 7 & W/Oct 14 The particular/universal distinction

Ramsey, F. (1925). ‘Universals’. In Properties (eds) D.H. Mellor and A. Oliver.

MacBride, F. (2018). On the Genealogy of Universals. Chs 5, 8, 9, &10

Recommended Reading:
Ramsey, F. (1923). ‘Critical Notice’. Mind.

Week 9: W/Oct 21 Basic particulars

Strawson, P.F. (1959). Individuals, ch 1

Week 10: W/Oct 28 Sounds

Strawson, P.F. (1959). Individuals, ch 2

Weeks11: W/Nov 4 The fundamental level of thought doesn’t have

subject/predicate [object+property] structure

Strawson, P.F. (1959). Individuals, ch 6

Weeks 12&13: W/Nov 11 Relations

Lowe, E.J. (2016). ‘There Are (Probably) No Relations’ . In A. Marmodora and D. Yates
(eds) The Metaphysics of Relations. Oxford: OUP.

Simons, P. (2016). ‘External Relations, Causal Coincidence, and Contingency’. In A.

Marmodora and D. Yates (eds) The Metaphysics of Relations. Oxford: OUP.

Heil, J. (2016). ‘Causal Relations’. In A. Marmodora and D. Yates (eds) The

Metaphysics of Relations. Oxford: OUP.

2
Week 13: W/Nov 18 General discussion

Week 14: W/Nov 25 Paper topics & Paper Presentations

Background timeline:

Frege
-The Foundations of Arithmetic (1884)
-Function and Concept (1891)
-On Sinn and Bedeutung (1892)

Russell
-On Denoting (1905)
-Mathematical Logic Based on the Theory of Types (1908)
-Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description (1910)
-On the Nature of Acquaintance (1914)
-The Relation of Sense-Data to Physics (1914)
-The Ultimate Constituents of Matter (1915)
-Our Knowledge of the External World, chs I-IV. (1914)
-The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)
-Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy: chs 1-3 and 12-18. (1919)

Wittgenstein
-Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
-Philosophical Investigations (1953)

Strawson
-Individuals (1959)