Bad Words

Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs

By: David Sosa (Editor)

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Hardcover | 9 August 2018

At a Glance

Hardcover
244 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
16.4 x 24.0 x 2.5

Hardcover

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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.

Industry 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. * Bjoern 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 *

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