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Spring, 2005

Instructor: Tom Trelogan
Office: Smith House (1007 20th St.)
Telephone: 351–1561
Office Hours: 11:15 a.m.–12:05 p.m. MWF and by appointment
E-mail: tom.trelogan@unco.edu

Course Objectives

The seminar will be devoted to a close study of J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things with Words—a set of seminal lectures on the subject of speech acts presented as the William James lectures at Harvard University in 1955. These lectures, published posthumously in 1962, represent a very significant contribution to the philosophy of language. Central to the work is Austin’s theory of the differences between locution, illocution, and perlocution—i.e., between saying something, doing something in saying something, and doing something by saying something, or in other words: between the various fundamentally different ways in which we...well, do things with words. As with any seminar, students will bear a major responsibility for directing the course of discussion. During the course of the semester, each of you will be expected to lead a meeting of the seminar by doing a presentation on one of the lectures in How to Do Things with Words and leading a follow-up discussion of topics opened up by your presentation.

Texts

The text for the course is the following book, which will be available at The Book Stop, the book store located at 931 16th St.

• Austin, J.L. How to Do Things with Words. Ed. J.O. Urmson and Marina Sbisa. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1975. (ISBN: 0674411528 )

Course Requirements and Grades

E-Mail Account:

You’ll need to have an e-mail account. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to arrange to get one by Wednesday. You can get a UNC account in any of the computer labs on campus or at Bear Logic, the computer store in the University Center. Accounts with other national or local ISPs (AOL, CompuServ, Juno, Hotmail, CTOS, etc.) are perfectly acceptable as well.

Assignments and Policies:

There will be assigned readings to prepare for the meetings of the seminar throughout the term, and as indicated above, you’ll be responsible for a seminar presentation as well. In addition, a term paper of some ten to fifteen pages is required on a topic to be approved by me. You may, if you wish, make this an extension of your presentation. Active participation in the seminar is expected thoughout the semester—as is, of course, regular attendance. An online forum is available to provide opportunities to extend your participation beyond the confines of the meetings of the seminar. Participation in the discussion there is strongly encouraged, but not required. (I do, however, require you to have an e-mail address so that we can contact one another by e-mail if need be and so you can submit your written work electronically.) Your work will be evaluated on the basis of the quantity and quality of your participation (30%), the quality of your seminar presentation (30%), and the quality of your final paper (40%). Last but not least, the penalty for plagiarism or cheating on any assignment will be denial of credit for the entire course.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

Students who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact Disability Support Services by dropping by the office in Harrison Hall 159A or by phoning the office at (970) 351-2289 as soon as possible to ensure that accommodations can be arranged in a timely way.