The Routledge Handbook of Social and Political Philosophy of Language

425 Pages·2021·7.316 MB·

by  Justin Khoo and Rachel Sterken

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL
AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
This Handbook brings together philosophical work on how language shapes, and is shaped by,
social and political factors. Its 24 chapters were written exclusively for this volume by an interna-
tional team of leading researchers, and together they provide a broad expert introduction to the
major issues currently under discussion in this area.
The volume is divided into four parts:
Part I: Methodological and Foundational Issues
Part II: Non-ideal Semantics and Pragmatics
Part III: Linguistic Harms
Part IV: Applications
The parts, and chapters in each part, are introduced in the volume’s General Introduction. A list
of Works Cited concludes each chapter, pointing readers to further areas of study.
The Handbook is the first major, multi-authored reference work in this growing area and es-
sential reading for anyone interested in the nature of language and its relationship to social and
political reality.
Justin Khoo is Associate Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He works primarily at the intersection
of philosophy of language and linguistic semantics, and has research interests in metaphysics and
meta-ethics.
Rachel Sterken is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. She works
primarily at the intersection of philosophy of language, semantics, ethics, and social philosophy.
Most of her research focuses on the semantics of generic language and issues related to conceptual
engineering.
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOKS IN PHILOSOPHY
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themes, thinkers, and recent developments in research.
All chapters for each volume are specially commissioned, and written by leading scholars in
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Also available:
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF MODALITY
Edited by Otávio Bueno and Scott A. Shalkowski
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PRACTICAL REASON
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF EUROPE
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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
OF LANGUAGE
Edited by Justin Khoo and Rachel Sterken
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF POLITICAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Edited by Michael Hannon and Jeroen de Ridder
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Handbooks-in-Philosophy/book-series/RHP
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK
OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Edited by Justin Khoo and Rachel Sterken
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2021 Taylor & Francis
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ISBN: 978-1-138-60243-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-75957-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-16486-9 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors viii
Introduction 1
PART I
Social and Political Language: Methodological and
Foundational Issues 13
1 Conceptual Engineering in Philosophy 15
Matti Eklund
2 Social Ontology 31
Mari Mikkola
3 An Invitation to Social and Political Metasemantics 42
Derek Ball
4 Linguistic Prescriptivism 56
Alex Barber and Robert J. Stainton
5 Speech-Act Theory: Social and Political Applications 70
Daniel W. Harris and Rachel McKinney
6 On the Uselessness of the Distinction Between Ideal and Non-Ideal
Theory (At Least in the Philosophy of Language) 91
Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever
v
Contents
PART II
Non-Ideal Semantics and Pragmatics 107
7 Lying, Deception, and Epistemic Advantage 109
Eliot Michaelson and Andreas Stokke
8 Propaganda 125
Anne Quaranto and Jason Stanley
9 Code Words 147
Justin Khoo
10 Racist and Sexist Figleaves 161
Jennifer Saul
11 Protest and Speech Act Theory 179
Matthew Chrisman and Graham Hubbs
12 Defective Contexts 193
Andrew Peet
PART III
Linguistic Harms 209
13 Varieties of Pejoratives 211
Robin Jeshion
14 Microaggressions and the Problem of Attributional Ambiguity 232
Christina Friedlaender
15 Hermeneutical Injustice 247
Rebecca Mason
16 Social and Political Aspects of Generic Language and Speech 259
Matthew McKeever and Rachel Sterken
17 Language Extinction 281
Ethan Nowak
18 “Laxwalxwash Potamáay Súngaan ‘Áawq // To Be Between the Blind
Snake’s Teeth”: Indigenous Language Reclamation Between the Fangs of
A (Simulated) Dilemma 298
Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner
vi
Contents
PART IV
Applications 315
19 Language and Free Speech 317
Ishani Maitra and Mary Kate McGowan
20 Language and Ideology 331
Eric Swanson
21 Language and Legitimation 345
Robert Simpson
22 How Much Gender is Too Much Gender? 362
Robin Dembrof and Daniel Wodak
23 On Language and Sexuality: Demisexuals, Polyamorous, Bambi Lesbians,
and Other Queers 377
Saray Ayala-López and E. Díaz-León
24 The Language of Mental Illness 389
Renée Jorgensen Bolinger
Index 405
vii
CONTRIBUTORS
Saray Ayala-López   is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University,
S acramento, and is interested in explanations, and the absence of them, sex and gender in science,
conversational dynamics and the many things we can do with words, cognitive externalism, and
several questions within social ontology and epistemology.
Derek Ball  is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He has written on
a wide range of topics in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and psychology.
Alex Barber  is Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at the Open University.
Renée Jorgensen Bolinger  is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and University
Center for Human Values and an associated faulty member in the Department of Philosophy at
Princeton University. She specializes in social and political philosophy and philosophy of lan-
guage. Her research focuses on the ways that agents’ moral and civil rights ground moral con-
straints on informal social norms and communicative conventions.
Herman Cappelen  is Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong. His two most recent
books are: Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering (Oxford UP, 2018) and Making AI
Intelligible: Philosophical Foundations (with Josh Dever, Oxford UP, 2021).
Matthew Chrisman  is Professor of Ethics and Epistemology in the Philosophy Department at
the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Meaning of ‘Ought’ (Oxford UP, 2015) and
What Is This Thing Called Metaethics? (Routledge, 2016). His research and teaching focuses on
metaethics, social epistemology, philosophy of language, and political philosophy.
Robin Dembrof  is Assistant Professor of philosophy at Yale University. They specialize in meta-
physics and feminist philosophy, with an emphasis on social systems and human classifcations.
Josh Dever  is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, who works primarily
in the philosophy of language and philosophical logic, with interests in the application of these
felds to problems throughout core areas of philosophy.
viii
Contributors
E. Díaz-León  is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. She special-
izes in philosophy of mind and language, and philosophy of gender, race, and sexuality, and her
current research focuses on social construction, conceptual ethics, and the metaphysics of gender,
race, and sexual orientation.
Matti Eklund  is Chair Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Uppsala University. He works
mainly on topics in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of logic, and metaethics.
Christina Friedlaender  is Instructor of Philosophy at Seattle University. Her research focuses
on the social ontology of shared agency and anti-oppression resistance, attending in particular to
the intersection of methodology, value pluralism, and social knowledge.
Daniel W. Harris  is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College, CUNY. His work
is mostly about semantics, speech acts, and the psychological capacities that make humans such
efcient communicators.
Graham Hubbs  is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Philosophy, University
of Idaho. He uses social ontological methods to study topics that lie at the intersection of philos-
ophy, politics, and economics.
Robin Jeshion  is Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern California, who special-
izes in the philosophy of language, especially in its intersections with philosophy of mind and
s ocial-political philosophy. She is also keenly interested in animal cognition, aesthetics, feminism,
and poetry.
Justin Khoo  is Associate Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He works on philosophy of language,
metaphysics, and metaethics, and has written about conditionals, modality, and political speech.
Ishani Maitra  is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Her areas of re-
search specialization include philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of law.
Rebecca Mason  is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. She spe-
cializes in metaphysics (especially social metaphysics), feminist philosophy, and social and political
philosophy. She also has interests in epistemology and philosophy of language (especially where
these intersect with her areas of specialization).
Mary Kate McGowan  is the Margaret Clapp ‘30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy
at Wellesley College. She works in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of law, and
feminism. She is the author of Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm (Oxford UP, 2019) and co-
editor, with Ishani Maitra, of Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (Oxford UP, 2009).
Matthew McKeever  is Executive Associate Editor at Inquiry and Research Assistant at ConceptLab
at the University of Oslo.
Rachel McKinney  is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and the Program Director of Politics,
Philosophy, and Economics at Sufolk University in Boston. She writes on philosophy of lan-
guage, social/political philosophy, and feminism.
ix