Bad Words: Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs

by David Sosa (Editor)

Overview

What makes a word bad? Bad Words is a philosophical examination of slurs and other derogatory and problematic language, by some of the leading contributors to the field. Slurs are an interesting case for the philosophy of language. On the one hand, they seem to be meaningful in something like the way many other expressions are meaningful - different slurs might seem in some way to refer to different groups, for example. But on the other hand, it's clear that slurs also have distinctive practical effects and roles: they can seem to be just an arbitrary tool for insulting or enabling harm. How are those aspects related? Just how the use of words is related to their significance is of course one of the deepest issues in philosophy of language: slurs not only refine that issue, by presenting a kind of use that presents novel challenges, but also give the issue a compelling practical relevance. The Engaging Philosophy series is a new forum for collective philosophical engagement with controversial issues in contemporary society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191076374
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	07/18/2018
Series:	Engaging Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	688 KB

About the Author

David Sosa is Temple Centennial Professor in the Humanities at UT Austin. He has been at Austin since 1997, after spending two years on a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Before that, he completed his PhD at Princeton. Sosa serves as editor of the journal Analytic Philosophy, and he is co-editor of Philosophy of Language (Oxford, 6th edition), Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology (Wiley/Blackwell), and Analytic Philosophy: A Companion (Wiley/Blackwell).

Table of Contents

Introduction, David Sosa
1. Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation, Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation
2. Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation, Elisabeth Camp
3. Loaded Words: On the Semantics and Pragmatics of Slurs, Kent Bach
4. Slurs, Dehumanization, and the Expression of Contempt, Robin Jeshion
5. Pejoratives as Fiction, Christopher Hom and Robert May
6. Pejorative Tone, Ernie Lepore and Matthew Stone
7. How do Slurs Mean?, Mark Richard
8. Slurs and Obscenities: Lexicography, Semantics, and Philosophy, Geoffrey Pullum
9. Nice Words for Nasty Things: Taboo and its Discontents, Laurence Horn

Editorial Reviews

"There should be no doubt that Bad Words is an excellent read of superb quality. No other extant volume can compete with the high standards and comprehensiveness of this volume. It is a necessary reference for all current and future research on the complex matter of the meaning of slurs." — Björn Technau, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict

"Sosa ... has brought together nine leading scholars of philosophy of language to produce the first serious philosophical analysis and examination of pejorative language, slurs in particular ... Recommended." — D. B. Boersema, CHOICE

"a valuable resource for readers who want to become informed about some of the most popular and widely discussed positions among philosophers of language on the semantics and pragmatics of words that are slurs." — Ralph DiFranco, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher