Bad Words: Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780198758655)

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.

Author: David Sosa
ISBN-10: 0198758650
ISBN-13: 9780198758655
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 09/26/2018
Pages: 244
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 3.60lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2019