GESM 160g: The Logic of Events

USC General Education freshman seminar (latest: Spring 2023): Linguists say that sentences describe events, while nouns describe objects. Psychologists describe principles of event perception, and philosophers debate the metaphysics of event identity. Our legal system holds us responsible for our actions (presumably, particular sorts of events), and, in some cases, our failures to act. But what are events? In this course, we look closely at ordinary thought and talk to gain insight into how people (implicitly) view this fundamental category of experience. We explore questions like: how do our descriptions of events relate to the events they describe? Are events different from objects, and if so, how? Are there importantly different kinds of events, and what are their properties? How are actions different from (mere) events? How can we distinguish ‘participants’ from ‘bystanders’? Etc. In exploring these questions, we make use of the tools of philosophical logic and linguistic semantics to precisely render hypotheses about what our event talk means and what it commits us to. As such, this course will be appropriate for students that are curious about the nature of human language and mind; seeking an introduction to the use of logical methods in philosophical or scientific inquiry; eager to improve their abilities in reading, reasoning, and argumentation; and interested to see how a research topic can span traditional disciplinary divides.