New Applications of the Assessment-Sensitivity Framework

Dan Zeman (University of Porto)

The talk is on campus only. Non-KCL attendees are welcome but should register in advance. Details below.

Dan Zeman

The idea that various expressions in natural language are assessment-sensitive (that is, their denotation depends not only on the context of utterance, but also on the context of assessment) is not new. Authors such as MacFarlane (2003, 2005, 2009, 2014), Egan, Hawthorne & Weatherson (2005), Lasersohn (2005, 2016), etc. have applied this idea to a large array of perspectival expressions such as predicates of taste, aesthetic adjectives, moral terms, epistemic modals, gradable adjectives, knowledge attributions, conditionals, future contingents, etc. In this presentation, I attempt to make a prima facie case that the framework can be extended to other natural language expressions, including some socially relevant ones. For example, the view is suitable as an ameliorative account of gender terms (“man”, “woman”, “non-binary”); it seems to offer a simple treatment of dogwhistles (“inner city”, “welfare”); and it can be applied to expressives (“jerk”, “asshole”) and perhaps slurs. To be sure, in order to apply to such expressions, various modifications of the core idea of the framework will have to be introduced. Although many details remain to be ironed out, I take the prospect of applying the assessment-sensitivity framework to such expressions to show both its fruitfulness and its capacity to illuminate important social phenomena.

Tuesday Dec 2nd, 2025 at 13:30-15:00 UK Time (UTC)

Room PB 508, Philosophy Building, Strand, London WC2B 4BG. Access via King’s Strand campus entrance and then King’s Building.

Accessibility. If you have special access needs, please send an email to [email protected] for us to ensure that you can reach the room.

Non-KCL attendees are welcome but must register by sending an email to [email protected] by Monday Dec 1st, 13:00 UTC and should check in as visitors upon arrival with the security desk at the Strand Building entrance (Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS).

The talk is hosted by the Formal Methods Research group, Department of Philosophy, King’s College London.