What exactly distinguishes lying from merely misleading someone? And what do bullshitting, bald-faced lies, and insincere questions or commands have in common? In this seminar we work through Andreas Stokke's Lying and Insincerity (Oxford University Press, 2018). The book covers what lying is, the distinction between lying and merely misleading, bullshitting, and how these phenomena extend beyond ordinary assertions to questions, commands, and exclamations as well. Stokke's central claim is that lying, misleading, and insincerity alike are best understood as relative to the question a conversation is currently trying to answer.

To work through these arguments, I will introduce the theoretical machinery that underlies the book's main tenets: Stalnakerian common ground and the Question Under Discussion (QUD) framework.

Prerequisites: A background in philosophy of language is required to participate in this seminar. Language: This seminar will be given in English.

Reading: Stokke, A. (2018). Lying and Insincerity. Oxford University Press.

Kurs im HIS-LSF