Josef Stern

Josef Stern is an identical twin, teaches in Chicago and resides in Jerusalem, and works in two main areas: contemporary philosophy of language and medieval philosophy, especially Jewish and Arabic philosophy.  His interests in the philosophy of language focus on the theory of reference, the role of context in semantic interpretation, the distinction between literal and non-literal meaning, and between linguistic and non-linguistic modes of representation and communication.  He is also working on the history of  Quine's Indeterminacy Thesis and foundational issues in theoretical linguistics.  He has no interest in counterpart theory but he is deeply involved in Frege's identity puzzle.  In his second area, Stern is completing a number of projects that focus on epistemological and metaphysical issues  in the philosophy of the twelfth-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides and his relation both to the Arabic philosophical tradition and to later Jewish thinkers. In addition, he is interested in Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, the philosophy of art, skepticism, the history of philosophical interpretation of Scripture, and staying awake (most of the time).

CV (DOC)


Contact

office: Stuart Hall, Room 202B
office phone: 773/702-8594
email: j06s@uchicago.edu

Selected Publications

  • Metaphor, Literal, Literalism (PDF)
  • Figurative Language (PDF)
  • Maimonides on Amalek, Self-Corrective Mechanisms, and the War against Idolatry (PDF NOT PROVIDED)
  • Maimonides' Epistemology (PDF)
  • Metaphor and Grammatical Deviance
    Noûs, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Nov., 1983), pp. 577-599 (Link)
  • Metaphor as Demonstrative
    The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 82, No. 12 (Dec., 1985), pp. 677-710 (Link)
  • Knowledge by Metaphor
    in Figurative Language Ed. P. A. French, H. K. Wettstein (Link)
  • Nachmanides's Conception of Ta'amei Mitzvot and Its Maimonidean Background
    in Commandment and Community: New Essays in Jewish Legal and Political Philosophy by D.H. Frank (Link)
  • Metaphor in Context
  • Problems and Parables of Law: Maimonides and Nahmanides on Reasons for the Commandments

Please see my CV (DOC) for a complete list of publications.

Selected Reviews by Josef Stern

  • Author(s) of Review: Josef Stern
    Reviewed Work(s): Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor by Mark Johnson
    The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Winter, 1982), pp. 231-234 (Link)
  • Author(s) of Review: Josef Stern
    Reviewed Work(s): Portraying Analogy by J. F. Ross
    The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 84, No. 7 (Jul., 1987), pp. 392-397 (Link)
  • Author(s) of Review: Josef Stern
    Reviewed Work(s): Unshadowed Thought: Representation in Thought and Language by Charles Travis
    Mind, Vol. 112, No. 448 (Oct., 2003), pp. 805-812 (Link)

Selected Reviews of Josef Stern's Work

  • Author(s) of Review: David Hills
    Reviewed Work(s): Metaphor in Context by Josef Stern
    The Philosophical Review, Vol. 111, No. 3 (Jul., 2002), pp. 473-478 (Link)
  • Author(s) of Review: Elisabeth Camp
    Reviewed Work(s): Metaphor in Context by Josef Stern
    Noûs, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 2005), pp. 715-731 (Link)

Recent Courses

23101/33101. Philosophy of Language - I
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: May be taken in sequence or individually although the second quarter will presuppose familiarity with the material of the first. A two-quarter sequence that addresses the nature of human knowledge of natural language. Topics include classic and recent conceptions of meaning, the relation between truth and meaning, the development of formal semantics, the use of artificial languages to explain natural language, skepticism about meaning, translation and interpretation, linguistic normativity, the structure of current linguistic theory, implications for the theory of the mind, relations between contemporary syntax and semantics, and at least one case study in the syntax and semantics of natural language. Readings will include Frege, Tarski, Bloomfield, Harris, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Chomsky, Higginbotham, Putnam, Evans, Burge, and others. Autumn 2003.

23102/33102. Philosophy of Language - II
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: May be taken in sequence or individually although the second quarter will presuppose familiarity with the material of the first. A two-quarter sequence that addresses the nature of human knowledge of natural language. Topics include classic and recent conceptions of meaning, the relation between truth and meaning, the development of formal semantics, the use of artificial languages to explain natural language, skepticism about meaning, translation and interpretation, linguistic normativity, the structure of current linguistic theory, implications for the theory of the mind, relations between contemporary syntax and semantics, and at least one case study in the syntax and semantics of natural language. Readings will include Frege, Tarski, Bloomfield, Harris, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Chomsky, Higginbotham, Putnam, Evans, Burge, and others Winter 2004.

23600/36000. Medieval Philosophy
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: Phil 25000. This course involves a study of the development of philosophy in the West in the first thirteen centuries of the common era with focus on Neoplatonism. Early Christian philosophy, Islamic Kalam, Jewish philosophy, and Christian philosophical theology. Readings include works of Plotinus, Augustine, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Maimonides, Averroes, and Thomas Aquinas. Winter 2005, Winter 2007.

23801/33801. Theory of Reference
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: Elementary formal logic (Phil 30000 or equivalent); prior exposure to analytic philosophy recommended. A survey of recent theories of names, descriptions, and truth. We will discuss the relation of reference to meaning as well as the epistemological and metaphysical consequences drawn from theses about reference. After briefly reviewing classical sources (e.g. Frege, Russell, and Tarski), we will concentrate on current work by Searle, Kripke, Donnellan, Kaplan, Putnam, Evans, Davidson, and Burge. Spring 2005.

24001/34001. Meaning
Open to college and grad students. Analysis of various conceptions of meaning, primarily with reference to natural language, and related notions such as analyticity, synonymy, intentionality, and intensionality, and of the philosophical uses of meanings, e.g., to ground claims of truth, necessity, and a priori knowledge. Readings may include Frege, Carnap, Quine, Kaplan, Grice, and Davidson.(B) Autumn 2006.

25110. Maimonides and Hume on Religion
Open to college students. This course will study in alternation chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and David Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion two major philosophical works whose literary forms are at least as important as their contents. Topics will include human knowledge of the existence and nature of God, anthropomorphism and idolatry, religious language, and the problem of evil. Time permitting, we shall also read other short works by these two authors on related themes. Winter 2006.

49700. Workshop: Preliminary Essay
Open to grad students. Third-year students finish this two-quarter course in the Autumn quarter; Second-year students take the first quarter of the course in the Spring term. Autumn 2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Winter 2006, Autumn 2004, Winter 2005, Autumn 2005, Spring 2005, Winter 2006, Spring 2006.
*Special note: This Workshop meets even weeks over three quarters.