Géza Kállay, Ph.D., Univ. Prof. (from L. Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary)
Description:
The idea behind this 400 course, an upper-level seminar, is that those IES students who already have a relatively solid background in philosophy might find a forum where they are able to study philosophy on a more advanced level than the one offered by the course “PH390 THE VIENNA CIRCLE AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY”. PH490 is “built upon” PH390 in the sense that, while all students in the seminar attend PH390 (meeting twice a week for two classroom-hours, i.e. 2x90 minutes), they are also offered an additional session, meeting once a week for two classroom hours (90 minutes). The main goal of the additional session, creating a real upper-level seminar atmosphere is to help students write a seminar paper of about 20 standard pages on a topic they are particularly interested in and/or they already have done some research on at their respective home universities.
The basic tenets behind the course is as behind PH390: the movement called the Vienna Circle (roughly between 1922-1936), including eminent scientist and philosophers like Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, or Otto Neurath, had a very significant impact on the intellectual history of both Europe and the United States. (Many of them were prosecuted by the Nazi authorities after the Anschluss in 1938, and most of them left for America to continue teaching there). The course proposes to concentrate on the following problems: the status of language (why and how language became a problem for philosophy at all at the beginning of the 20th century); the logical analysis of language (its method and significance); the critique of metaphysics; the verification principle (establishing the truth of sentences containing experienced-based (empirical) statements about the world); the relationship between language and world, with special reference to Wittgenstein’s picture-theory in the Tractatus (1920) and to his later work, Philosophical Investigations (1953, 1958), building on the Tractatus but rejecting some of its most significant tenets); and the ‘sense’ of non-empirical sentences, i.e. the sentences of ethics, aesthetics and theology. Thus the logic of the course, somewhat also figuring the order in which the Circle encountered its problems, is the following: it proceeds from language to world (reality), and then goes back to the user of language, the human being. (A “field-trip”, guided by the instructor to Budapest will try to back up the inter-cultural atmosphere of the course as well.)
Prerequisites:
Recommended chiefly to those students who are philosophy majors at their respective home universities, but it will also be of interest to those with a philosophy minor, to religious studies and psychology majors, and even to those who already have some significant experience in philosophy. It is open to those who have a genuine interest in philosophy and would like to produce a serious and well-researched paper on a philosophical problem they find worth investigating in depth.
Additional requirements:
There are two important series in English published by the Institute Vienna Circle; one is the Yearbook of the Institute Vienna Circle (since 1993, marked by YIVC below), the other is the Vienna Circle Collection (since 1973, marked by VICC below). Only the most relevant volumes for the course will be listed, with some other significant books that can be used fro further research:
Anscombe, G. E. M., An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1959. [A commentary from someone who knew Wittgenstein personally; difficult but interesting].
Black, Max, A Companion to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1971. [Still the best introduction to the Tractatus, with lots of references to members of the Vienna Circle].
Block, Irving (ed.), Perspectives on the Philosophy of Wittgenstein. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1983. [A collection of essays, the fruit of a conference in 1976, most of them on the “early” Wittgenstein, i.e., on the Tractatus and around; now a classic].
Cirerea, Ramon, Carnap and the Vienna Circle. Empiricism and Logical Syntax. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1994. [An excellent, though sometimes technical study in the philosophy of perhaps the most outstanding member of the Circle].
Copi, Irving M. and Robert W. Beard (eds.), Essays on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. [Everything important said about the Tractatus till the mid-sixties, wonderfully edited, still a very valuable collection].
Danto, Arthur and Sidney Morgenbesser (eds.), Philosophy of Science. New York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1960. [Contains some classic pieces from the “American link” of the Vienna Circle; excellent on the concept of measurement in the vein of the Vienna Circle].
Fogelin, Robert, Wittgenstein. Second edition. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. [A standard survey of Wittgenstein’s thinking in “The Argument of Philosophers” series. Reflects on other standard interpretations of Wittgenstein, too].
French, Peter (et. al.), Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Volume XVIII. The Wittgenstein Legacy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1992. [A wonderful anthology, concentrating on the “later” Wittgenstein though, by the most eminent Wittgensteinians of today].
McGuiness, Brian, Joachim Schulte and Hans Kaal (eds.), Ethics and the Will. Essays. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994 [VICC 21; contains essays by Friedrich Waismann and Moritz Schlick on one of the most difficult problems for the Circle: the language and the status of ethics].
Nemeth, Elisabeth and Friedrich Stadler (eds.), Otto Neurath (1882-1945) – Encyclopedia and Utopia. Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer, 1996. [YIVC 4; A fascinating volume dedicated to the work of the sociologist, Otto Neurath, one of the most active members of the Circle].
Neurath, Otto, Philosophical Papers 1913-1946. Cohen, Robert and M. Neurath eds., Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1983 [VICC 16; The collection of the philosophical papers of the sociologist, Otto Neurath, also dealing with social sciences, especially the problem of history].
Passmore, John, A Hundred Years of Philosophy. Harmondsworth: Pelican, (1957), 1970. [An excellent survey, mostly on British and American philosophy, with some continental background].
Schlick, Moritz, Philosophical Papers, Volume I (1909-1922). Mulder, Henk L. and B. F. B. van de Velde Schlick eds., Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1978 [VICC 11a; The collected philosophical writings of the founder of the Circle].
Schlick, Moritz, Philosophical Papers, Volume II (1925-1936), Mulder, Henk L. and B. F. B. van de Velde Schlick eds., Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1980 [VICC 11b; The collected philosophical writings of the founder of the Circle].
Stadler, Friedrich (ed.), Scientific Philosophy. Origins and Development. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1993. [YIVC 1, contains expert contemporary appraisals of the work of the Circle – highly recommended].
Stadler, Friedrich: The Vienna Circle – Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism, New York and Wien: Springer, 2000.
Waismann, Friedrich, Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. McGuiness, B. F. ed., Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979 [The most important document of the relationship between the Circle and Wittgenstein, contains conversations recorded by Waismann. Authenticity is sometimes debated.]
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Notebooks 1914-1916. Second edition. Von Wright, G. H. and G. E. M. Anscombe, eds., Trans. by G. E. M. Anscombe, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979. [A collection of Wittgenstein’s notes taken as preliminary studies in the problems later dealt with in the Tractatus. Many of these remarks found their way to the Tractatus. Interesting background reading].
Additional student cost:
The field-trip to Budapest is optional and although IES contributes to the expenses with approximately 30 EUROs, about 60 EUROs for lodging, food etc. can be expected if one travels to Budapest for a weekend.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are to know the basic concepts and philosophical principles of the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, including its context: verification, logical analysis, analytical and synthetic truth, a priori and a posteriori, contradiction, tautology, truth-value, sense-datum, experience, the nonsensical nature of non-factual sentences, the picture-theory of meaning, meaning viewed as use, private language, rule-following. They should have gradually growing expertise in the ability to reproduce arguments and in critical thinking: they should be able to take a stand, both in writing and orally, in philosophical debates, evaluating the feasibility of a certain position, including their own.
Method of presentation:
Since the course is built upon the PH390 course, students in PH490 will be required to attend PH390, and meet with one another and the instructor for an additional session of 90 minutes for 10 weeks. This means that students in this course will be required to write the Midterm and Final of PH390 as well, but they will also be working on a roughly 20 page-long research essay. PH390 consists of 20 ninety minute-long sessions. We will be discussing the material under the sub-title Compulsory reading, assigned for each meeting. The reading mostly contains classic pieces by members of, and philosophers associated with, the Vienna Circle, together with some important, later interpretations (including Harvard philosopher’s Quine’s attack on positivism); less technical and relatively easily available articles have been selected. The course-material will be available through Moodle. The course will pay careful attention to the intercultural aspects of the ideas of the Vienna Circle: the intellectual climate under which these ideas were formed, how the thoughts of its members found an echo outside of Austria, and how they made a lasting influence on philosophical thinking in England and in the United States. PH390 sometimes uses the lecture-format, primarily at the beginning of the term, but does everything to engage students in genuine philosophical discussions and debates throughout the term and to prepare them well for the midterm and the final exams. The additional PH490 meetings will be more in the manner of discussion sessions.
Required work and form of assessment:
Midterm exam (as for PH390) (20%): three short essays, answering three questions out of the choice of six, testing (1) familiarity with the basic concepts covered, (2) the ability to reproduce arguments (3) critical thinking: taking a stand, evaluating the feasibility of a certain position.
Final exam(as for PH390) (20%): there will be some excerpts from the compulsory readings, and five concepts (from various classroom-sessions) will also be listed; students will have to comment on these, (otherwise the goal of testing as under the “Midterm exam”)
Class participation(as for PH390) (10 %): absolutely regular attendance (see IES Vienna attendance policy, in your Student Handbook), activity in class, taking part in the discussions.
Upper-level Seminar Paper (50%): a roughly 20 page-long research-essay on a topic approved by the instructor and discussed in the weekly seminar sessions.
The topics to be written on will be discussed at the very beginning of the term and must meet the instructor’s approval. The ultimate choice of the topic will try to cater to individual needs and interests. The topic may conveniently be chosen from among the topics dealt with in PH390, thus developing a problem, an argument etc. into an in-depth analysis in the form of a mature philosophical essay. Since one of the tasks in the upper-level seminar will precisely be to collect secondary literature (also to be approved of, and possibly extended, by the instructor) on the subject-matter the student will be writing on, no list of secondary sources will be given beforehand (however, there is a list of “Recommended readings at the end of this syllabus).
The main substance of the upper-level seminar sessions will be as follows:
distribution and discussion of the topics the students will be working on (1st week)
research phase (2nd-3rd week): collecting relevant secondary literature, presenting outline
presenting drafts and sections of the essays (4th-5th-6th-7th week)
presenting “almost ready” second drafts (8th-9th week)
presentation and submission of finished essays (10th week)
Outlines and drafts will be accessible through Moodle two days prior to the session, and each member of the seminar is required to read everyone else’s material before the meetings.
The sessions themselves will consist of presentations and critical commentaries on the material presented (and read beforehand) by all participants.
content:
1st week:
1st meeting: Getting acquainted and introduction: rationalism, empiricism, phenomenology and positivism: ways of doing philosophy
2nd meeting: the Vienna Circle and the intellectual climate of Vienna
Compulsory reading:
Kraft, Victor, “The History of the Vienna Circle”, In: Kraft, Viktor, The Vienna Circle. The Origin of Neo-Positivism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, (1953), 1969, pp. 3-15;
Moritz Schlick, “The Turning Point in Philosophy” (1930/31), In: Logical Positivism, ed. by A. J. Ayer; Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 53-59.
3rd meeting: getting acquainted, distribution of topics, discussing course-work
2nd week:
4th meeting: Background to the philosophical method of the Vienna Circle: the function of philosophy
Compulsory reading:
Bertrand Russell, “Appearance and Reality”, (optional: “The Existence of Matter” and “The Nature of Matter”) In: Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-18)
5th meeting: The nature of philosophy: the pursuit of truth and the problem of language
Compulsory Reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The Function of Philosophy” Chapter Two In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 62-79.
6th meeting: showing results of collected secondary literature, adjustments and possible extensions, presentation of outlines
3rd week:
7th meeting: Positivism versus metaphysics I.
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “Positivism and Realism” (trans. by David Rynin, 1932/33) In: Logical Positivism, ed. by A. J. Ayer, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 82-107.
8th meeting: Positivism versus metaphysics II.
Compulsory reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The Nature of Philosophical Analysis”, Chapter Three In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 80-115.
9th meeting: showing results of collected secondary literature, adjustments and possible extensions, presentation of outlines
4th week:
10th meeting: Phenomenology versus Positivism I.
Compulsory reading:
Martin Heidegger, “What is Metaphysics?” (1929) In: Heidegger, Martin: Pathmarks. William McNeill, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 82-96.
11th meeting: Phenomenology versus Positivism II.
Compulsory reading:
Rudolf Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language” (trans. by Arthur Pap, 1932), In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 60-81.
12th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
5th week:
13th meeting: Verification and Epistemology I (TAKE-HOME MIDTERMS are DUE!)
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “The Foundation of Knowledge” (trans. by David Rynin, 1934) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 209-227.
14th meeting: Verification and Epistemology II.
Compulsory reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The A Priori” Chapter four In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 96-115.
Moritz Schlick: “Meaning and Verification” (1938) In: Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Anthology. Vol. Three, eds. by William Barett and Henry D. Aiken. New York: Random House, 1962, pp. 28-51.
15th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
6th week
16th meting: Ethics I.
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “What is the Aim of Ethics?” (trans. by David Rynin, 1930) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 247-263.
17th meeting: Ethics II.
Compulsory reading:
C. L. Stevenson, “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms” (1937) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 264-281.
18th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
7th week:
19th meeting: A Dissenting Voice from America
Compulsory reading:
W. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” I In: American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, ed. Barbara MacKinnon, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, pp. 557-569
20th meeting: Willard van Orman Quine
Compulsory reading:
W. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” II In: American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, ed. Barbara MacKinnon, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, pp. 557-569
21st meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
8th week
22nd: The Vienna Circle and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
David G. Stern: “The Methods of the Tractatus Beyond Positivism and Metaphysics” In: Logical Empiricism. Historical and Contemporary Perspective, eds. by Paolo Parrini, Wesley C. Salmon and Merrilee H. Salmon, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003, pp, 125-156.
23rd meeting: The Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuiness, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, (1921, 1961), 1989, paragraphs 1-3; 4-4.25; 4.46-4.5; 5.552-5.641; 6.124-7.
24th meeting: presenting and discussing second drafts
9th week
25th meeting: Towards a new understanding of the Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Cora Diamond, “Ethics, Imagination and the Method of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus” In: The New Wittgenstein, eds. by Alice Crary and Rupert Read, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 149-173.
26th meeting: Ethics and metaphysics in the Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, “A Lecture on Ethics” (1929) In: Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951, Klagge, James and Alfred Nordmann eds., Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 36-44.
27th meeting: presenting and discussing second drafts
10th week
28th meeting: The Tractatus from Philosophical Investigations I. (TAKE-HOME FINALS ARE DUE!)
Compulsory reading:
Marie McGinn, “Wittgenstein’s Critique of Augustine” In: Marie McGinn: Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 33-72.
29th meeting: Tractatus from Philosophical Investigations II
30th meeting: end-of-the-semester discussion of results, submission of final versions of essays
ADDITIONAL (31st) meeting: evaluation of essay by instructor, discussing essays with students individually.
Required readings:
Ayer, A. J., “The Nature of Philosophical Analysis”, Chapter Three In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 80-115.
Ayer, A. J., “The Function of Philosophy” Chapter Two In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 62-79.
Ayer, A. J., “The A Priori” Chapter four In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 96-115.
Ayer, A. J., ed., Logical Positivism, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959
Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972
Barett, William and Henry D. Aiken. Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Anthology. Vol. Three, New York: Random House, 1962
Carnap, Rudolf, “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language” (trans. by Arthur Pap, 1932), In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 60-81.
Crary, Alice and Rupert Read, eds., The New Wittgenstein, London and New York: Routledge, 2000
Diamond, Cora, “Ethics, Imagination and the Method of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus” In: The New Wittgenstein, eds. by Alice Crary and Rupert Read, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 149-173.
Heidegger, Martin, “What is Metaphysics?” (1929) In: Heidegger, Martin: Pathmarks. William McNeill, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 82-96.
Heidegger, Martin: Pathmarks. ed. by William McNeill, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Kraft, Victor, “The History of the Vienna Circle”, In: Kraft, Viktor, The Vienna Circle. The Origin of Neo-Positivism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, (1953), 1969, pp. 3-15;
Kraft, Viktor, The Vienna Circle. The Origin of Neo-Positivism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, (1953), 1969.
MacKinnon, Barbara, ed., American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985.
McGinn, Marie, “Wittgenstein’s Critique of Augustine” In: Marie McGinn: Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 33-72.
McGinn, Marie, Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Parrini, Paolo, Wesley C. Salmon and Merrilee H. Salmon, eds., Logical Empiricism. Historical and Contemporary Perspective, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
Quine, W. O., “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” In: American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, ed. Barbara MacKinnon, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, pp. 557-569.
Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Russell, Bertrand “Appearance and Reality” In: Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965, pp. 1-18.
Schlick, Moritz “Positivism and Realism” (trans. by David Rynin, 1932/33) In: Logical Positivism, ed. by Ayer, A. J., Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 82-107.
Schlick, Moritz, “Meaning and Verification” (1938) In: Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Anthology. Vol. Three, eds. by William Barett and Henry D. Aiken. New York: Random House, 1962, pp. 28-51.
Schlick, Moritz, “The Foundation of Knowledge” (trans. by David Rynin, 1934) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 209-227.
Schlick, Moritz, “The Turning Point in Philosophy” (1930/31), In: Logical Positivism, ed. by A. J. Ayer; Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 53-59.
Schlick, Moritz, “What is the Aim of Ethics?” (trans. by David Rynin, 1930) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 247-263.
Stern, David G., “The Methods of the Tractatus Beyond Positivism and Metaphysics” In: Logical Empiricism. Historical and Contemporary Perspective, eds. by Paolo Parrini, Wesley C. Salmon and Merrilee H. Salmon, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003, pp, 125-156.
Stevenson, C. L., “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms” (1937) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 264-281.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, “A Lecture on Ethics” (1929) In: Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951, Klagge, James and Alfred Nordmann eds., Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 36-44.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuiness, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, (1921, 1961), 1989, paragraphs 1-3; 4-4.25; 4.46-4.5; 5.552-5.641; 6.124-7.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951, eds. by Klagge, James and Alfred Nordmann, Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Géza Kállay earned MA degrees in Hungarian Literature and Linguistics, English Literature and Linguistics, with teaching degrees, and MA in General and Applied Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary in 1984. He got his Ph.D. in Literature and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in 1996. He went through the “habilitation” process at L. Eötvös University in 2003 and became full professor in 2007. He has been teaching at the School of English and American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest since 1984, giving lectures and seminars on Renaissance English drama and cultural history, literary theory and the relationship between literature and philosophy. He is the program director of the MA program in English Studies, and head of the Doctoral School in Literary Studies. He was also visiting professor at Corvinus University, Budapest, teaching East- and Central European Culture. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University with Prof. Stanley Cavell, and was appointed visiting professor of philosophy and literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz (2004-05; 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009: Summer Sessions). He has been with IES, Vienna since 1989. Current research areas include the relationship between philosophy and literature, Shakespearean tragedy and Hungarian literature. His recent publications include Személyes jelentés ([Personal Meaning], a book of essays on philosophy and literature, Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2007) "Semmi vérjel" [No Stain of Blood], a book of essays on mainly Hungarian literature and philosophy (Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2008); “És most beszélj!” – nyelvfilozófia, dráma és elbeszélés [“And now: speak!” – the philosophy of language, drama and narrative], forthcoming at Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2012, November; “ ‘What Wilt Thou Do, Old Man?’ – The Uneasy Pleasure of Being Sick Unto Death: Scrooge, King Lear, and Kierkegaard”, Partial Answers, Volume 9, Number 2, June, 2011, Publ. by The Johns Hopkins University Press and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, pp. 267-284; “At T-time, the Inchoative Nick of Time, and ‘Statements about the Past’: Time and History in the Analytic Philosophy of Language”, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Vo. 5 No. 3, 2011, Ed. by Frank Ankersmit, Mark Bevir, Paul Roth and Jeff Malpas, Leiden: Brill, pp. 322-351; “Nonsense and the Ineffable: Re-reading the Ethical Standpoint in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus”, The Nordic Wittgenstein Review 1 (published 15 August, 2012).
The idea behind this 400 course, an upper-level seminar, is that those IES students who already have a relatively solid background in philosophy might find a forum where they are able to study philosophy on a more advanced level than the one offered by the course “PH390 THE VIENNA CIRCLE AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY”. PH490 is “built upon” PH390 in the sense that, while all students in the seminar attend PH390 (meeting twice a week for two classroom-hours, i.e. 2x90 minutes), they are also offered an additional session, meeting once a week for two classroom hours (90 minutes). The main goal of the additional session, creating a real upper-level seminar atmosphere is to help students write a seminar paper of about 20 standard pages on a topic they are particularly interested in and/or they already have done some research on at their respective home universities.
The basic tenets behind the course is as behind PH390: the movement called the Vienna Circle (roughly between 1922-1936), including eminent scientist and philosophers like Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, or Otto Neurath, had a very significant impact on the intellectual history of both Europe and the United States. (Many of them were prosecuted by the Nazi authorities after the Anschluss in 1938, and most of them left for America to continue teaching there). The course proposes to concentrate on the following problems: the status of language (why and how language became a problem for philosophy at all at the beginning of the 20th century); the logical analysis of language (its method and significance); the critique of metaphysics; the verification principle (establishing the truth of sentences containing experienced-based (empirical) statements about the world); the relationship between language and world, with special reference to Wittgenstein’s picture-theory in the Tractatus (1920) and to his later work, Philosophical Investigations (1953, 1958), building on the Tractatus but rejecting some of its most significant tenets); and the ‘sense’ of non-empirical sentences, i.e. the sentences of ethics, aesthetics and theology. Thus the logic of the course, somewhat also figuring the order in which the Circle encountered its problems, is the following: it proceeds from language to world (reality), and then goes back to the user of language, the human being. (A “field-trip”, guided by the instructor to Budapest will try to back up the inter-cultural atmosphere of the course as well.)
Recommended chiefly to those students who are philosophy majors at their respective home universities, but it will also be of interest to those with a philosophy minor, to religious studies and psychology majors, and even to those who already have some significant experience in philosophy. It is open to those who have a genuine interest in philosophy and would like to produce a serious and well-researched paper on a philosophical problem they find worth investigating in depth.
There are two important series in English published by the Institute Vienna Circle; one is the Yearbook of the Institute Vienna Circle (since 1993, marked by YIVC below), the other is the Vienna Circle Collection (since 1973, marked by VICC below). Only the most relevant volumes for the course will be listed, with some other significant books that can be used fro further research:
The field-trip to Budapest is optional and although IES contributes to the expenses with approximately 30 EUROs, about 60 EUROs for lodging, food etc. can be expected if one travels to Budapest for a weekend.
By the end of the course, students are to know the basic concepts and philosophical principles of the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, including its context: verification, logical analysis, analytical and synthetic truth, a priori and a posteriori, contradiction, tautology, truth-value, sense-datum, experience, the nonsensical nature of non-factual sentences, the picture-theory of meaning, meaning viewed as use, private language, rule-following. They should have gradually growing expertise in the ability to reproduce arguments and in critical thinking: they should be able to take a stand, both in writing and orally, in philosophical debates, evaluating the feasibility of a certain position, including their own.
Since the course is built upon the PH390 course, students in PH490 will be required to attend PH390, and meet with one another and the instructor for an additional session of 90 minutes for 10 weeks. This means that students in this course will be required to write the Midterm and Final of PH390 as well, but they will also be working on a roughly 20 page-long research essay. PH390 consists of 20 ninety minute-long sessions. We will be discussing the material under the sub-title Compulsory reading, assigned for each meeting. The reading mostly contains classic pieces by members of, and philosophers associated with, the Vienna Circle, together with some important, later interpretations (including Harvard philosopher’s Quine’s attack on positivism); less technical and relatively easily available articles have been selected. The course-material will be available through Moodle. The course will pay careful attention to the intercultural aspects of the ideas of the Vienna Circle: the intellectual climate under which these ideas were formed, how the thoughts of its members found an echo outside of Austria, and how they made a lasting influence on philosophical thinking in England and in the United States. PH390 sometimes uses the lecture-format, primarily at the beginning of the term, but does everything to engage students in genuine philosophical discussions and debates throughout the term and to prepare them well for the midterm and the final exams. The additional PH490 meetings will be more in the manner of discussion sessions.
The topics to be written on will be discussed at the very beginning of the term and must meet the instructor’s approval. The ultimate choice of the topic will try to cater to individual needs and interests. The topic may conveniently be chosen from among the topics dealt with in PH390, thus developing a problem, an argument etc. into an in-depth analysis in the form of a mature philosophical essay. Since one of the tasks in the upper-level seminar will precisely be to collect secondary literature (also to be approved of, and possibly extended, by the instructor) on the subject-matter the student will be writing on, no list of secondary sources will be given beforehand (however, there is a list of “Recommended readings at the end of this syllabus).
The main substance of the upper-level seminar sessions will be as follows:
Outlines and drafts will be accessible through Moodle two days prior to the session, and each member of the seminar is required to read everyone else’s material before the meetings.
The sessions themselves will consist of presentations and critical commentaries on the material presented (and read beforehand) by all participants.
1st week:
1st meeting: Getting acquainted and introduction: rationalism, empiricism, phenomenology and positivism: ways of doing philosophy
2nd meeting: the Vienna Circle and the intellectual climate of Vienna
Compulsory reading:
Kraft, Victor, “The History of the Vienna Circle”, In: Kraft, Viktor, The Vienna Circle. The Origin of Neo-Positivism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, (1953), 1969, pp. 3-15;
Moritz Schlick, “The Turning Point in Philosophy” (1930/31), In: Logical Positivism, ed. by A. J. Ayer; Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 53-59.
3rd meeting: getting acquainted, distribution of topics, discussing course-work
2nd week:
4th meeting: Background to the philosophical method of the Vienna Circle: the function of philosophy
Compulsory reading:
Bertrand Russell, “Appearance and Reality”, (optional: “The Existence of Matter” and “The Nature of Matter”) In: Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-18)
5th meeting: The nature of philosophy: the pursuit of truth and the problem of language
Compulsory Reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The Function of Philosophy” Chapter Two In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 62-79.
6th meeting: showing results of collected secondary literature, adjustments and possible extensions, presentation of outlines
3rd week:
7th meeting: Positivism versus metaphysics I.
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “Positivism and Realism” (trans. by David Rynin, 1932/33) In: Logical Positivism, ed. by A. J. Ayer, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 82-107.
8th meeting: Positivism versus metaphysics II.
Compulsory reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The Nature of Philosophical Analysis”, Chapter Three In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 80-115.
9th meeting: showing results of collected secondary literature, adjustments and possible extensions, presentation of outlines
4th week:
10th meeting: Phenomenology versus Positivism I.
Compulsory reading:
Martin Heidegger, “What is Metaphysics?” (1929) In: Heidegger, Martin: Pathmarks. William McNeill, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 82-96.
11th meeting: Phenomenology versus Positivism II.
Compulsory reading:
Rudolf Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language” (trans. by Arthur Pap, 1932), In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 60-81.
12th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
5th week:
13th meeting: Verification and Epistemology I (TAKE-HOME MIDTERMS are DUE!)
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “The Foundation of Knowledge” (trans. by David Rynin, 1934) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 209-227.
14th meeting: Verification and Epistemology II.
Compulsory reading:
A. J. Ayer, “The A Priori” Chapter four In: Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth and Logic, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin (1936, 1946), 1972, pp. 96-115.
Moritz Schlick: “Meaning and Verification” (1938) In: Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Anthology. Vol. Three, eds. by William Barett and Henry D. Aiken. New York: Random House, 1962, pp. 28-51.
15th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
6th week
16th meting: Ethics I.
Compulsory reading:
Moritz Schlick, “What is the Aim of Ethics?” (trans. by David Rynin, 1930) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 247-263.
17th meeting: Ethics II.
Compulsory reading:
C. L. Stevenson, “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms” (1937) In: Logical Positivism, A J. Ayer, ed., Glencoe: Free Press, 1960, pp. 264-281.
18th meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
7th week:
19th meeting: A Dissenting Voice from America
Compulsory reading:
W. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” I In: American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, ed. Barbara MacKinnon, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, pp. 557-569
20th meeting: Willard van Orman Quine
Compulsory reading:
W. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” II In: American Philosophy. A Historical Anthology, ed. Barbara MacKinnon, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, pp. 557-569
21st meeting: presenting drafts and essay-sections
8th week
22nd: The Vienna Circle and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
David G. Stern: “The Methods of the Tractatus Beyond Positivism and Metaphysics” In: Logical Empiricism. Historical and Contemporary Perspective, eds. by Paolo Parrini, Wesley C. Salmon and Merrilee H. Salmon, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003, pp, 125-156.
23rd meeting: The Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuiness, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, (1921, 1961), 1989, paragraphs 1-3; 4-4.25; 4.46-4.5; 5.552-5.641; 6.124-7.
24th meeting: presenting and discussing second drafts
9th week
25th meeting: Towards a new understanding of the Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Cora Diamond, “Ethics, Imagination and the Method of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus” In: The New Wittgenstein, eds. by Alice Crary and Rupert Read, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 149-173.
26th meeting: Ethics and metaphysics in the Tractatus
Compulsory reading:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, “A Lecture on Ethics” (1929) In: Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951, Klagge, James and Alfred Nordmann eds., Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 36-44.
27th meeting: presenting and discussing second drafts
10th week
28th meeting: The Tractatus from Philosophical Investigations I. (TAKE-HOME FINALS ARE DUE!)
Compulsory reading:
Marie McGinn, “Wittgenstein’s Critique of Augustine” In: Marie McGinn: Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 33-72.
29th meeting: Tractatus from Philosophical Investigations II
Compulsory reading:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, (1954, 1958), 1984, §§ 1-38
30th meeting: end-of-the-semester discussion of results, submission of final versions of essays
ADDITIONAL (31st) meeting: evaluation of essay by instructor, discussing essays with students individually.
Géza Kállay earned MA degrees in Hungarian Literature and Linguistics, English Literature and Linguistics, with teaching degrees, and MA in General and Applied Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary in 1984. He got his Ph.D. in Literature and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in 1996. He went through the “habilitation” process at L. Eötvös University in 2003 and became full professor in 2007. He has been teaching at the School of English and American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest since 1984, giving lectures and seminars on Renaissance English drama and cultural history, literary theory and the relationship between literature and philosophy. He is the program director of the MA program in English Studies, and head of the Doctoral School in Literary Studies. He was also visiting professor at Corvinus University, Budapest, teaching East- and Central European Culture. He pursued post-doctoral studies at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University with Prof. Stanley Cavell, and was appointed visiting professor of philosophy and literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz (2004-05; 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009: Summer Sessions). He has been with IES, Vienna since 1989. Current research areas include the relationship between philosophy and literature, Shakespearean tragedy and Hungarian literature. His recent publications include Személyes jelentés ([Personal Meaning], a book of essays on philosophy and literature, Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2007) "Semmi vérjel" [No Stain of Blood], a book of essays on mainly Hungarian literature and philosophy (Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2008); “És most beszélj!” – nyelvfilozófia, dráma és elbeszélés [“And now: speak!” – the philosophy of language, drama and narrative], forthcoming at Budapest: Liget Publishers, 2012, November; “ ‘What Wilt Thou Do, Old Man?’ – The Uneasy Pleasure of Being Sick Unto Death: Scrooge, King Lear, and Kierkegaard”, Partial Answers, Volume 9, Number 2, June, 2011, Publ. by The Johns Hopkins University Press and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, pp. 267-284; “At T-time, the Inchoative Nick of Time, and ‘Statements about the Past’: Time and History in the Analytic Philosophy of Language”, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Vo. 5 No. 3, 2011, Ed. by Frank Ankersmit, Mark Bevir, Paul Roth and Jeff Malpas, Leiden: Brill, pp. 322-351; “Nonsense and the Ineffable: Re-reading the Ethical Standpoint in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus”, The Nordic Wittgenstein Review 1 (published 15 August, 2012).