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263-5353-00L 5 Credits DR , MSC , WBZ D-GESS , D-INFK
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Philosophy of Language and Computation

Lecturers & Examiners: Dr. Juan Luis Gastaldi, Prof. Dr. Ryan Cotterell
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:01:55

Abstract

Understand the philosophical underpinnings of language-based artificial intelligence.

Objective

This graduate class, taught like a seminar, is designed to help you understand the philosophical underpinnings of modern work in natural language processing (NLP), most of which centered around statistical machine learning applied to natural language data.

Content

This graduate class, taught like a seminar, is designed to help you understand the philosophical underpinnings of modern work in natural language processing (NLP), most of which centered around statistical machine learning applied to natural language data. The course is a year-long journey, but the second half (Spring 2023) does not depend on the first (Fall 2022) and thus either half may be taken independently. In each semester, we divide the class time into three modules. Each module is centered around a philosophical topic. In the first semester we will discuss structuralism, recursive structure and logic, and in the second semester we will focus on language games, information and pragmatics. The modules will be four weeks long. During the first two weeks of a module, we will read and discuss original texts and supplementary criticism. During the second two weeks, we will read recent NLP papers and discuss how the authors of those works are building on philosophical insights into our conception of language—perhaps implicitly or unwittingly.

Resources

Literature

The literature will be provided by the instructors on the class website.

Learning Materials (Links)

General Information

Language
English
Levels
DR , MSC , WBZ

Examination

Type
graded semester performance
The course will require a weekly reading of around 20 pages and a weekly task related to the reading, which is to be completed online. The weekly tasks are short and not graded, but, in order to pass the class, at least 70% of the tasks must be completed. The final grade will be based, in equal parts, on three term papers (each around 5-10 pages) which are to be turned in throughout the semester. Each term paper corresponds to one of the three modules and the students will be expected to explore the relation of the topics discussed in class to work not presented in the class. For example, discussing how three recent NLP papers implicitly assumed a structuralist perspective on language would be a good topic.

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture Philosophy of Language and Computation
  • Tue 16:15-18:00 (HG E 1.1)
2 h weekly
exercise Philosophy of Language and Computation
  • Tue 18:15-19:00 (HG E 1.1)
1 h weekly
independent project Philosophy of Language and Computation No time listed 1 h weekly

Offered In