Slurs and neutral counterparts: An inferentialist perspective

Leopold Hess (Jagiellonian University)

The Mind, Language and Action Group (MLAG), a research unit of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Porto, invites you to the second event of the new MLAG Seminar Series featuring talks by international researchers on topics of interest to the group. The talk, given by Leopold Hess (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), is titled "Slurs and neutral counterparts: An inferentialist perspective" (abstract below) and will take place on November 27, 14:00-15:30 Western European Time (WET). The meeting is in hybrid format:

- In-person: Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto, Via Panorâmica, s/n, 4150-564 Porto, Anfiteatro 2, Portugal

- Online: MS TEAMS: Meeting ID: 333 525 999 219 0; Passcode: DG7tU3tX.

The seminar is jointly organized by Sofia Miguens (MLAG-IF), Dan Zeman (MLAG-IF), James Grayot (MLAG-IF), Rafael Antunes Padilha (MLAG-IF|IFCH-UNICAMP), Samuel Lima (FLUP) and João Carlos Rocha Lima (FLUP). Information about MLAG can be found here: https://ifilosofia.up.pt/research-groups/mlag. To contact the organisers, please send an email to [email protected].

All welcome!

ABSTRACT:

A major controversy in recent philosophical literature on slurs concerns the issue of so-called neutral counterparts. It is often assumed that the reference of a slur is either identical to or functionally related to the reference of a non-offensive term for the same group. Important arguments have been levelled against this assumption by Ashwell, Croom, Falbo and Foster among others. The most important problem appears to be that slurs are in fact often used with an extension that does not match the extension of the putative counterpart. In this talk I will suggest that an inferentialist semantics of slurs can elegantly account for both the canonical and non-canonical uses of slurs. What is usually considered a problem of the inferentialist approach – that it does not attribute determinate extensions to objectionable expressions – can be turned into an advantage.