Language, Truth and Dialogue

In this participation-heavy class, we will read and discuss some dialogical works by great philosophers concerned with language, truth and knowledge (including Plato, Cicero, Diderot, and Heidegger). Through close readings of quite difficult texts and hokey in-class exercises and exchanges, we will consider what makes a dialogue something other than a monologue or a monograph, what is needed to make a written dialogue work, how interactions or speech acts occur in dialogue, and how the use of language relates to reason and how we know and judge what we do.