Philosophy of Language Review Sheet

For the test be aware of the following ideas and their connections with each other.

Also, be able to give examples for the ideas below

1. When does a table become a table?

2. How do people tend to categorize objects? Is it possible to classify all objects?

3. What is special about the word "game"? Who came up with this puzzle?

4. Differentiate analytic from continental philosophy.

5. How is Jabberwocky special? Relate it to both structuralism and language games.

6. What are emotive words. Give some examples. What are the qualities swear words possess? How is the F word similar to the word "game".

7. How does metaphor alter meaning? Who decides what is meaningless and what is metaphor? Does one need to think metaphorically to be able to understand certain forms of language?

8. What do language games say about our ability to define individual words? Whose idea is this? Can words be defined by themselves?

9. What is the role language plays in forming knowledge of our individual world? Give examples from other cultures, especially Japanese language and politeness.

10. Language is a: 1. system of symbols 2. we know and 3.use. Be able to give examples for each of these three criteria and how they may vary across culture or language.

11. What are some difficulties with defining people as belonging to a certain race. What does the 'Boston Plan' say? How can politicians and business people use words like "minority" or "affirmative action" to manipulate public policy?

12.Be able to briefly explain how ontology was defined by Plato (cave), Aristotle (categories), Kant(noumena), Descartes(cogito), Heidegger(Dasein) and Sartre(En soi, Pour soi).

13. What is structuralism? How is the structuralist model contrasted to the humanist model?

14. Go through the Introduction to Hermeneutics worksheet. Make sure you know what hermeneutics is. Also understand bootstrapping. Review the other questions too.

15. Try to understand what phenomenology is. How does phenomenology challenge Descartes’ cogito ergo sum? (This also relates to review sheet #12)

16. Read over Heidegger. What is Dasein? What are the three different attitudes Dasein can have about the world? What is Angst? Try to understand this sentence: Heidegger is associated with both hermeneutic phenomenology and existential phenomenology.

17. Read the sheet on Nietzsche. Be able to spell his name. Know something about each of these main ideas: Zarathustra/ God is dead, eternal return, the will to power. Relate his ideas to post modernism.

18. What does Rorty say about philosophy and language and epistemology? What is "interesting" for Rorty? Go over the questions on the Nietzsche's Legacy worksheet on Rorty.

19. What does Gadamer say about philosophy and language? What is truth for Gadamer and how may it best be pursued? Go over the questions on the Nietzsche's Legacy worksheet on Gadamer.

20. What does Derrida say about philosophy and language? What is deconstruction? What does deconstruction do to meanings of passages? Derrida is said to be a post-structuralist, contrast this to the structuralists. Be able to deconstruct a simple passage. What is Derrida’s favourite myth?

21. According to Habermas, what are the two roles of philosophy in contemporary society? What is his theory of communicative action? How does Habermas speak for the Enlightenment and against the post modernists?

22. What does Baudrillard think is the basis of (Western) society? How does language fit in with his ideas of simulacra and hyperreality?

23. From the notes on Sartre, be able to explain the following: existentialism, Being and Nothingness (see question 12), "Man is condemned to be free". Also be able to relate his work to the major thesis of Simone de Beauvoir's book, 'The Second Sex'.

24. Explain the following terms in relation to Foucault: archaeologist, structures of knowledge and power, post-structuralist, bio-power.

25. What are the contributions of Schopenhauer to philosophy?

26. Think about the following quote: