Course Descriptions
Consequentialism
Arshak Balayan
The central thesis of consequentialism is the claim that the rightness or wrongness of actions depends exclusively upon their consequences. Many consequentialists first identify the intrinsic good(s) and then claim that the given action is right if it maximizes intrinsic good or produces sufficient amount of intrinsic good in the world. In this crash course we will first examine classical consequentialist theories and will investigate main challenges mounted against consequentialism: a) strict impartiality alienates people, does not leave room for special relations, b) it claims that types of actions do not have any intrinsic worth, either negative or positive, c) it is too demanding, d) it does not individuate persons, e) it requires to perform clearly unjust actions etc. Then, during the last three sessions we will discuss contemporary consequentialist theories that aim to answer these challenges and demonstrate the viability of the consequentialist approach.
Foundations of Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing
Markus Egg
This class offers an introduction to Machine Learning (ML) for linguistics. ML is a widely used method of current empirical linguistic research. In ML, learning methods are applied to corpora, with the goal of acquiring a strategy of extracting specific information from such corpora. In a second step, the learned strategy is then used for the automatic large-scale analysis of new linguistic data.
1) Introduction: Basic principles and ideas of ML and their application in empirical linguistic research
2) A first algorithm: k-nearest neighbours
3) Naïve Bayes
4) Support Vector Machines
5) Neuronal processing
The Semantics and Pragmatics of Countability and Plurality
Hana Filip and Peter Sutton
This course concerns the semantics of countability in natural languages. We will explore the differences between mass and count nouns, and similarities between mass and plural nouns. The main focus will be on phenomena that influenced the formation of the current theories of the mass/count distinction. Of special interest will be the semantic properties of nouns whose grammatical mass/count properties are dissociated from the pre-linguistic (cognitive) ‘stuff’/‘object’ distinction. They will include (but not be limited to) (i) object mass nouns (alsoknown as ‘fake’ mass nouns) like footwear and their delimitation from count nouns like shoe/shoes; (ii) count nouns like fence which, unlike prototypical count nouns like boy, lack stable spatio-temporal boundaries across all contexts and occur in measure constructions (e.g., two yards of fence versus ?five pounds of (a) boy); and (iii) nouns for granulars like rice, sand, gravel and small animals with ‘swarming’ behavior, all of which we typically encounter as aggregates consisting of relatively small discrete entities, each cognitively or perceptually salient; what is then particularly striking is their lexicalization as either count or mass, in a particular language and also across different languages: e.g., lentil(s) (count) – čočka (mass, Czech). We will also examine cross-linguistic differences in distributional patterns of quantifiers, counting and measuring constructions (e.g., why in numeral classifier languages like Mandarin Chinese classifiers are required when nouns are modified with numericals (‘two’) in counting constructions).
The theoretical framework that many semanticists assume who work on countability in natural languages is that of algebraic (lattice-theoretical) or mereological semantics. Participants will be introduced to classical extensional mereological semantics, which presupposes the fundamental sum operation and part relation, and relies on define higher-order cross-categorial predicates and relations over first order predicates in analyzing the meanings of natural language predicates: e.g., atomicity, quantization, cumulativity, homogeneity, collectivity and distributivity. Moreover, this course will explore recent extensions of the algebraic/mereological semantics with topological notions, vagueness, gradience, overlap and probability theory. While the main focus is on the countability of nouns, similarities will also be drawn to parallel countability phenomena in the verbal domain, where countability matters to the telic/atelic distinction and the semantics of the grammatical perfective/imperfective aspect, and which led to enrichments of mereological semantics developed for nouns with event semantics.
Digital Ethics
Axel Gosseries
This introductory course will provide students with some conceptual and normative tools needed to address some of the ethical issues that they face in digital environments. We will begin with some basic tools, e.g. the distinction between facts, concepts and norms/values or the method of reflective equilibrium. We will also look at how to approach information-related rights and freedoms, and to handle cases of inter- or intra-rights clashes. We will then engage in looking at more specific issues such as whether illegal downloading can be ethically defended, whether whistleblowing should be protected or whether privacy paternalism should be generalized. No prior knowledge will be required, except for some command of Shakespeare’s idiom, some first-hand (self-)knowledge about human nature and basics about the natural world. While knowledge about why the young leaves of pomegranate bushes are red will not be absolutely necessary, open-mindedness towards philosophical work will be a must. Also, the classes will be thought live through the internet to reduce carbon emissions and save some extra lives, hence pointing at still another issue of digital ethics.
Speech Acts in a Dynamic Setting
Manfred Krifka
Speech Acts are the smallest units with a communicative function of their own. A name like Bill refers to a person and does not have a communicative function other than as a building block for a larger utterance, but used with appropriate prosody as in Bill!, it can serve as an independent social act by which the speaker attracts a person’s attention. Similarly, a clause like Bill is aslepp denotes a communicatively inert proposition, a mere “thought”, but used in an assertion, a speaker can make a public commitment to its truth. Hence, speech acts sit right at the contested border of semantics and pragmatics.
The course will start out with the classical approaches to speech acts and then focus on recent semantic and pragmatic theories. It will present a theoretical view in which communicative acts are modeled within an extended framework of dynamic semantics, as mappings from information states to information states. Novel aspects include an integration of the social commitments of interlocutors, and of the possible continuations of information states, which are modulated by questions. Also, there will be a focus on how morphosyntactic and prosodic means are used to express and to modify speech acts, and how speech acts work in conversation.
Prerequesites: It would be good, but not absolutely necessary if you have a previous understanding of truth-conditional semantics.
Philosophical Reflections on the Evil of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
Armen Marsoobian
In the last twenty years the crime of genocide and related crimes against humanity have generated renewed attention by philosophers. While a few philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Beryl Lang, and John Roth, explored this domain years earlier, new and important work is currently being generated. This course will explore a limited selection of this contemporary work. We will begin by examining the concept of genocide as first articulated by Raphael Lemkin and further developed by him and others (Larry May) into international law (Genocide Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide). Moral as distinguished from legal responsibility will be critically examined, especially with regard to so-called bystanders and the descendants of perpetrators. Does such responsibility extend across generations? The particular harm of such crimes will be explored through the lens of the feminist philosophy Claudia Card and others. Is the harm of genocide unique? The epistemic and moral responsibilities of post-genocidal societies, especially perpetrator societies, will be analyzed. Are we responsible for the sins of our fathers? The important role of memory work and memorialization will play a significant role in our inquiry. Of concern is the role of such work in combating genocide denial and epistemic violence. Readings from Marianne Hirsch, James Young, and Jeffrey Blustein will be our focus. If time permits, we will also explore the role of forgiveness and apology (Lynne Tirrell and Robin S. Dillon) in the aftermath of such crimes.
Language Acquisition and Mental Representations: Minimal Interfaces, Recursion, Point of View, and Arithmetic
Tom Roeper
We will address issues in how children acquire complex syntax and their philosophical connections. This entails detailed experimental discussion of long distance wh-movement (over 3 clauses), quantification (including new work each), ellipsis, and recursion with possessives, PP's, relative clauses and sentences. Larger issues include the role of Speech Acts, False Belief, and QUD . (what reasoning is involved for this 6yr old "and so she knew that I thought she thought that Easter was only three days and I told her Easter was one day .")
These topics will be embedded in a teleological conception of UG and the projection of Minimal Interfaces across modules (including syntax, semantics, pragmatics). In particular we will address the question of what we should expect of notation in cognitive science. How far should we expect X-bar theory to extend? That question will be addressed in terms of new correlations between recursion and the representation of counting above 100 in English and Chinese.
We will sketch a theory of Minimal Interfaces and their role in acquisition with an additional reference to an underlying philosophical issue: the role of notation in representing psychological reality. The core argument is that the child's pursuit of Minimal Interfaces across syntax, semantics, and pragmatics provides an acquisition engine that allows the child to reject or prefer certain grammars that have or lack "ideal" or "perfect" interface relations. Open discussion from any perspective is encouraged.
Metaethics
Julian Schloeder
TBA
Vagueness
Peter Sutton
The main goal of this course will be to familiarise students with a sample of historical and contemporary research on the phenomena of vagueness in natural language. This will include covering issues in semantics, pragmatics, logic, the philosophy of language, and epistemology. We begin by asking what it means for an expression to be vague and for an agent to be vague by using an expression. We will study the challenges vagueness generates for orthodox semantic theories based on classical logic, and will examine numerous attempts meet these challenges as well as the problems such attempts face.