180228 KU Language, injustice, and resistance (2021W)

This is a course in social and political philosophy of language. It explores how language is bound up with social and political power, how the use and reception of language can be unjust, and how such injustice can be resisted or counteracted.

The course is divided into the following four themes:

1. Speech acts, silencing, and blocking. In this part we explore how the ability to do things with words (to perform speech acts) can be unjustly impeded or “silenced” by audiences, and also how audiences and bystanders can counter-act unjust speech by means of “blocking.”

2. Epistemic injustice and epistemic resistance. In this part we explore some of the ways that speakers can be unjustly treated as epistemic agents – for example, when they are not assigned enough credibility, or when they are unfairly disadvantaged by the distribution of hermeneutical resources. We also explore some ways that epistemic injustice can be resisted.

3. Derogatory language. In this part we explore derogatory language, such as slurs, dogwhistles, and other forms of “toxic speech”, and we examine strategies, such as reclamation and reappropriation, for combatting such language.

4. Conceptual engineering. In this part we examine the idea that certain oppressive concepts can be revised and improved, in lie with our social and political goals. We look in particular at concepts of race and gender, exploring how these concepts may contribute to the subordination of certain groups, and how they might be ameliorated in order to serve social justice.