Proposed Graduate Seminar:
Meaning, Language, and Experience: Common Roots of Continental and Analytic Philosophy
This syllabus was written for a graduate seminar. A version of the course suitable for an advanced undergraduate course
or masters course would also be possible, with fewer readings divided into shorter segments, much less secondary
literature, and several short papers or take-home exams during the semester in place of the précis and final paper.
Course Description and Objectives
This course will survey ideas about meaning, language, and experience in European philosophy around the turn of
the twentieth century, focusing especially on how they contributed to the division of philosophy into “continental”
and “analytic” traditions. In addition to examining the historical origins and early texts representative of this divide,
we shall also address the question of its relevance in the twenty-first century, and whether the distinction between
these types of philosophy is—or ever was—as clear-cut as many have assumed it to be. Even those who self-identify
as doing one of these types of philosophy or the other do not always agree on how the distinction should be
defined: Should it be characterized in terms of ongoing historical movements? Research programs? Styles of doing or
writing about philosophy, regardless of content? Unique sets of philosophical problems? Our goal in this course will
be to read and understand some important and representative texts from the period of the emergence of this
distinction, with an eye to reexamining it in the broader context of the history of philosophy and in terms of the
contemporary state of the discipline.
Requirements and Grading
Participation (attendance and active participation in class, including informal presentations)
20%
Four précis, on four different authors of your choice (see below)
10% each x 4= 40%
Final paper of 12- 15 pages, on a topic cleared with me in advance (see below)
40%
Writing Requirements
In addition to careful reading and participation in class, a significant portion of your grade (80%) will come from
writing assignments. For four of the reading assignments during the semester other than those from Crowell, Friedman,
Glock, Lawlor, and Soames you are expected to submit a précis: a highly concise, one-page prose summary of the main
points and argument of the text. You may choose the days/ assignments for which to submit the précis, but each of
them must treat a different author. It is in your best interest to begin work on these early in the semester, as the
feedback from the first one will be helpful in improving your skill at this type of writing for subsequent submissions.
Although you need only submit four précis during the semester, you are allowed to submit up to six. For students
submitting more than four, only the best four will be counted toward your final grade. A separate handout explaining the
précis in more detail will be distributed at the beginning of the semester. In addition to the four précis, you are
expected to write a 12- 15 page final paper dealing with some of the themes and figures discussed in the course, on a
topic cleared with me well in advance.
Course Schedule
Assuming 1-2 seminar meetings per week, (two to four hours of total class time)
week 1
week 2
Jacob Rump
I. Precursors and Problems
Class Introduction, Syllabus, Opening Discussion
Friedman, a Parting of the Ways, Preface and Chapter 1
Lawlor, Early Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy (selections)
Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Introduction
Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (selections)
Graduate Seminar Syllabus: Common Roots of Continental and Analytic Philosophy
1
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (selections)
Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment (selections)
week 3
Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lying in a Non-moral Sense”
Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy
Mill, A System of Logic (selections)
Glock, What is Analytic Philosophy?, pp. 1- 56 (Introduction, Historical Overview)
II. The Turn to Meaning
week 4
Brentano, Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (selections)
Meinong, “The Theory of Objects”
Kriegel, “Phenomenal Intentionality Past and Present”
Dewalque, “Brentano on the Parts of the Mental: A Mereological Approach to Phenomenal
Intentionality”
week 5
Frege, “Sense and Reference”
Frege, “Concept and Object”
Hale and Wright, “Horse Sense”
week 6
Husserl, Logical Investigations, “Prolegomena to Pure Logic” (selections)
Frege, “The Thought”
Benoist, “Theories of Reference in Both Early Phenomenology and Early Analytic Philosophy.”
Aquila, “Husserl and Frege on Meaning.”
week 7
Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (selections)
Wittgenstein, Tractatus, (complete, but focusing on assigned propositions)
Tejedor, “The Metaphysical Status of Tractarian Objects”
week 8
III. Emerging Differences
Natorp, “On the Objective and Subjective Grounding of Knowledge”
Husserl, Introduction to Phenomenology
week 9
Blumberg and Feigl, “Logical Positivism”
Carnap, The Logical Construction of the World (selections)
Carnap, Pseudo-Problems in Philosophy
week 10
Schlick, “Is there a Material A Priori?”
Husserl and Heidegger “Phenomenology” (The Encyclopedia Britannica Article)
Livingston, “Husserl and Schlick on the Logical Form of Experience”
week 11
Heidegger, Being and Time (selections)
Okrent, “Equipment, World, and Language.”
week 12
Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (selections)
Husserl, “The Origin of Geometry”
Derrida, “Form and Meaning: A Note on the Phenomenology of Language”
Hyder, “Foucault, Cavaillès, and Husserl on the Historical Epistemology of the Sciences.”
Jacob Rump
Graduate Seminar Syllabus: Common Roots of Continental and Analytic Philosophy
2
week 13
IV. Looking Back: A Century Later
McDowell, Mind and World (selections)
Crowell, Husserl, Heidegger, and The Space of Meaning (selections)
Zahavi. Husserl and Transcendental Intersubjectivity: A Response to the Linguistic-Pragmatic Critique
(selections)
week 14
Glock, What is Analytic Philosophy?, pp. 231- 261 (“Concluding Discussion”)
Lawlor, Early Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy (selections)
Reynolds, Chase, Mares, and Williams Post-analytic and Metacontinental: Overcoming the Divide
(selected essays)
week 15
Final Discussion
Jacob Rump
Graduate Seminar Syllabus: Common Roots of Continental and Analytic Philosophy
3