College Seminar (101-7-20)

Instructors

Brady Clark
847/491-7560
1922 Sheridan Road
Office Hours: to be determined

Meeting Info

Shepard Hall B25: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

The title of this First-Year Seminar is Deceptive Speech. When academics discuss communication, they tend to focus on ideal uses of language involving cooperative, honest, helpful, and trustworthy speakers. Real-world communication is not like this at all. This seminar examines communication in our non-ideal world. Our primary focus will be several forms of deceptive communication: lying, misleading, and bullshitting. We will explore a wide range of topics: What are the linguistic cues to deceptive communication, if any? Does lying necessarily involve deception? Why is there so much bullshit in contemporary political speech? Is online misinformation a problem? If it is, how should we address it? Do chatbots lie and bullshit? Our goal will be to figure out what tools and concepts we need to understand the varieties of deception that characterize human language interaction.

Registration Requirements

First-Year Seminar: WCAS First-Year Seminar. ABC grading, no P/N option for this section.

Learning Objectives

(i) to identify the tools and concepts we need to understand the varieties of deception that characterize human language interaction, (ii) to develop an understanding of several dimensions of linguistic meaning, and (iii) to acquire a working knowledge of several analytical tools used to investigate meaning in linguistic communication.

Evaluation Method

Grades will be based on participation in discussion, two group projects, and several short papers.

Class Materials (Required)

No required texts (instructor will upload all required readings to the course website)

Class Attributes

WCAS College Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: REASON: Pre-registration is not allowed for this class. Please try again during regular registration. Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.
Add Consent: Department Consent Required
Drop Consent: Department Consent Required