Paper Topics #2
Write a clear, well-argued essay on one of the following topics. Your paper should be about 5 pages, double-spaced, 12-point type. It is due Thursday, May 3.
You must turn in both an electronic copy and a paper copy. The paper copy should be given to your GSI. The electronic copy should be uploaded directly to http://turnitin.com. It may be in any of the following formats: Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, RTF, HTML, PDF, postscript, or plain text.
You may wish to consult the “General Hints” from the previous paper. All of the advice given there applies to this paper as well.
A common objection to Quine’s indeterminacy thesis is that even if a linguist could not, on the basis of behavioral evidence, choose between a translation of ‘gavagai’ as ‘rabbit’ and a translation of ‘gavagai’ as ‘undetached rabbit part’, there are further facts that would determine which translation is correct. Pick one kind of fact that might be thought to resolve the indeterminacy, and discuss whether it does. Be sure to consider how Quine might reply to the claim that such facts resolve the indeterminacy.
Drawing on “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs,” explain what Davidson might say about Burge’s “arthritis” thought experiment (in “Individualism and the Mental”). What do you think is the main point of contention between Davidson and Burge? Who do you think is right, and why?
In “If You Can’t Make One, You Don’t Know How it Works” and “The Nature of Thought,” Dretske develops an account of thought according to which creatures without language or society can have thoughts. How might Davidson argue against Dretske’s account? (You should be sure to look at Davidson’s article “Rational Animals.”)
What is the “disjunction problem”? Why does Fodor think that you can’t solve the disjunction problem by appealing to natural functions (whether underwritten by evolution or by learning)? Is his criticism successful against Dretske’s theory?