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263-5353-00L 3 Credits DS , MSC , WBZ D-GESS , D-INFK
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Philosophy of Language and Computation I

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

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:38:52

Abstract

This graduate class, partly 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.

Objective

Understand the philosophical underpinnings of language-based artificial intelligence.

Content

This graduate class, partly 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 (Autumn 2024) does not depend on the first (Spring 2024) 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 logicism, structuralism, generative linguistics, and in the second semester we will focus on language games, information and pragmatics. The modules will be four weeks long, where we will read and discuss original texts and supplementary criticism together with 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. It includes philosophical and theoretical texts from the logicist tradition, structuralism, and generative linguistics, as well as many texts within the state of the art of Natural Language Processing.

Learning Materials (Links)

General Information

Language
English
Levels
DS , MSC , WBZ

Examination

Type
graded semester performance
The course will require a weekly reading of around 20 pages (with relatively high variance) 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 on one class presentation and one term paper (around 5-10 pages) which is to be turned in at the end of the semester. The term paper ideally 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 I
  • Tue 18:15-19:00 (ML F 38)
  • 23.04 Date 17:15-18:00 (ML F 39)
  • 30.05 Date 18:15-20:00 (ML F 38)
  • 10.06 Date 09:15-12:00 (ML F 40)
1 h weekly
exercise Philosophy of Language and Computation I
  • Tue 19:15-20:00 (ML F 38)
1 h weekly

Offered In