Welcome to PHIL453/LING476, Philosophy of Language, Spring 2016 [Prof. Franco]

Hello class. Welcome to Philosophy of Language. I'm looking forward to lively discussions in class and on this blog about questions concerning, say, how names work and why slurs are offensive.

In this post, I'm going to give you some very general instructions about your weekly assignment. But, first, let me selectively quote part of my statement of teaching philosophy to give you an idea of the purpose of this blog:

At an idealized level, a philosophy class consists of a student or group of students putting forward a claim (or articulating the claim made in the day’s reading), the others asking for reasons for that claim, and then, as a class, collectively analyzing the force of the reasons given for the original claim....To approximate this idealization, I ask students to post twice a week to a shared blog....This assignment format was a success. Students found their questions overlapping with their classmates’; when dealing with difficult texts, this kind of affirmation is important because it reassures students they are either on the right track or aren’t alone in being lost. In addition to the blog creating an opportunity for students to engage one another’s ideas outside of class, the students and I would reference their posted questions and answers in class. This made students active stakeholders in and shapers of the class.  

Format for the blog posts might vary week-to-week. On weeks in which a specific format is not specified, please use the following format (I appreciate when students call out or quote particular passages):

1. Write 2 -3 sentences (not any more) stating something you agreed with in the readings for that day.
2. Write 2 - 3 sentences (not any more) stating something that disagreed with in the readings for that day.
3. Ask at least one question about the reading. Your question can raise an objection or be a question for clarification about a puzzling passage.

Now, on to more technical instructions:

1. Formatting: Just like the title of this post, the title of your weekly posts should be related to the content of your post (since you're engaging particular authors, your title can just reference them) and include [Your Name] in brackets. I'll leave a comment in the comments section of this post to show you what the format of your comments should look like. 
2. "Turning your work in": After writing your blog post or making your comment, you should open the relevant assignment on Canvas (here). There should be a place to paste the URL of your post, which is all you need to post. Make sure that the URL you post is the Permalink for your specific post and not the generic link to the blog. You can find the Permalink to the right of your screen. On comments, you can find the Permalink by clicking the timestamp of the comment.
3. Who posts when: Students with last names beginning with A - O post prior to 5 p.m. on Mondays Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8; they post prior to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9. Students with last names beginning P - Z post prior to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8; they post prior to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9. 
4. Who comments when: All students post comments on a fellow student's post prior to 2:00 p.m. on Fridays.

Looking forward to a great class!

-- Prof. Franco