Reading Group

General Information

Lecturer Dr. Michael Richter
Workload 2 SWS Lecture
Seminar Wednesday, 15:15 - 16:45 - every 2 weeks
Contact Email

Announcements

  • The seminar will be carried out online via BigBlueButton.
  • The first seminar is expected to take place on 13th October 2021.

  • The idea of a READING GROUP is to present interesting scientific publications in a manageable discussion circle of and to discuss the topics with each other in order to check one's own understanding of what has been read, or to deepen or even correct it.

    This semester's topics will be philosophy of language, information theory and semantics of natural language. The basics are Fred Dretske with his work Knowledge and the Flow of Information, which caused a furore at the time, Shannon's model of information and the application of this model to the semantics of natural languages. Thus, in the winter semester 2021/22 of the Reading Group, we will be concerned with the major topic of communication by means of language. The question we are interested in is: How can language understanding be modelled by an information-theoretical model of communication?

    Interested people from any academic discipline are invited. In each session we will discuss a limited (sub)-topic. The basis for the discussion will be chapters from Dretske and professional articles, which will be made available at least one or two sessions in advance. A short introduction at the beginning of each session is then followed by the conversation with questions and comments.

Organization

  • Seminars are live. The first session is intended as an introduction and for organizational purposes. Please be there! [Big Blue Button]
  • Materials will be distributed in the first session.
  • Communication Dr. Michael Richter mprrichter@gmail.com

    Schedule

    • 13.10.2021

      Introduction

    • 27.10.2021

      Chapters 1 & 2 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 10.11.2021

      Chapter 3 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 24.11.2021

      Chapters 4 - 5 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 08.12.2021

      Chapters 6 & 7 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 05.01.2022

      Chapters 7 - 8 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 19.01.2022

      Chapter 9 of Knowledge and the Flow of Information by Fred I. Dretske

    • 02.02.2022

      Questions and discussion