Language and Society, Misc

In this paper, I examine Max Deutsch’s dilemma for the implementation of newly engineered concepts. In the debate over this dilemma, the goal of conceptual engineering tends to be set either too high or too low. As a result, implementation tends to be seen as either very unlikely to succeed or too easily achievable. This paper aims to offer a way out of this dilemma. I argue that the success conditions for implementation can be better understood if we distinguish between (...) different stages in the implementation process. Implementation is a complex process involving several stages, each of which can be evaluated as a success or a failure. I argue that even if an implementation does not reach the final stage in which a new concept is widely used in the society at large, it may not be a complete failure: conceptual engineers may not even aim for a new concept to be widely used in the society at large; or even if they do and a new concept only circulates in a smaller subgroup, this can still be a significant achievement. The upshot is that we should take more seriously the possibility that conceptual engineering can be implemented locally at the subgroup level. (shrink)

In the first half of this paper, I argue that group belief ascriptions are highly ambiguous. What's more, in many cases, neither the available contextual factors nor known pragmatic considerations are sufficient to allow the audience to identify which of the many possible meanings is intended. In the second half, I argue that this ambiguity often has bad consequences when a group belief ascription is heard and taken as testimony. And indeed it has these consequences even when the ascription is (...) true on the speaker's intended interpretation, when the speaker does not intend to mislead and indeed intends to cooperatively inform, and when the audience incorporates the evidence from the testimony as they should. I conclude by arguing that these consequences should lead us to stop using such ascriptions. (shrink)

What is the relationship between the claim that generics articulate psychologically primitive generalizations and the claim that they exhibit a unique form of context sensitivity? This paper maintains that the two claims are compatible. It develops and defends an overlooked form of contextualism grounded in the idiosyncrasies of System 1 thought.

Bystander information is information about others’ attitudes towards a text (i.e. about whether they agree or disagree with it). Social media platforms force bystander information upon us when we read posts thereon. What effect does this have on how we respond to what we read? The dominant view in the literature is that it changes our minds (the so-called “bandwagon effect”). Simplifying a little: if we see that most people agree (disagree) with what a post says, we are more likely (...) to agree (disagree) with what it says. This paper argues that we should take seriously a competitor view and care about the difference between it and the dominant view. The competitor view proposes that bystander information changes what a text seems to us to say: although bystander information may lead us to change what attitude we express toward a post, that’s not because we’ve changed our attitude toward any fixed content (i.e. fixed thing that the post says). This paper argues that, if this competitor view is correct, then social media is likely to be an especially hazardous place for the practice of sharing content. (shrink)

There is a widespread phenomenon that we call linguistic imposters. Linguistic imposters are systematic misuses of expressions that misusers mistake with their conventional usages because of misunderstanding their meaning. Our paper aims to provide an initial framework for theorizing about linguistic imposters that will lay the foundation for future philosophical research about them. We focus on the misuses of the expressions 'grooming' and 'critical race theory' as our central examples of linguistic imposters. We show that linguistic imposters present a distinctive (...) phenomenon by comparing them to some adjacent phenomena, namely conceptual engineering, linguistic hijacking, and dogwhistles. We also address four objections about the extensional adequacy of our definition of linguistic imposters. Finally, we argue that, as linguistic imposters spread, they make some inferences featuring misused expressions more cognitively accessible and seemingly socially licensed to misusers and discuss four types of harms that linguistic imposters are conducive to through these effects. (shrink)

How is it that a speaker S can at once make it obvious to an audience A that she intends to communicate some proposition p, and yet at the same time retain plausible deniability with respect to this intention? The answer is that S can bring it about that A has a high justified credence that ‘S intended p’ without putting A in a position to know that ‘S intended p’. In order to achieve this S has to exploit a (...) sense in which communication can be lottery-like. After defending this view of deniability I argue that it compares favorably to a rival account recently developed by Dinges and Zakkou (2023). (shrink)

The phenomena of call-outs and call-ins are fiercely debated. Are they mere instances of virtue signaling? Or can they actually perform social justice work? This paper gains purchase on these questions by focusing on how language users negotiate norms in speech. The authors contend that norm-enacting speech not only makes a norm salient in a context but also creates conversational conditions that motivate adherence to that norm. Recognizing this allows us to define call-outs and call-ins: the act of calling-out brings (...) with it the presupposition that its target's behavior is norm-violating, whereas the act of calling-in simply presupposes its target's willingness to revise their belief. With these definitions at hand, we evaluate whether call-outs and call-ins are suitable tools for combating social injustice. (shrink)

Alex Byrne contends that women are (simply) adult human females, claiming that this thesis has considerably greater initial appeal than the justified true belief (JTB) theory of knowledge. This paper refutes Byrne’s thesis in the same way the JTB theory of knowledge is widely thought to have been refuted: through simple counterexamples. Lessons are drawn. One lesson is that women need not be human. A second lesson is that biology and physical phenotypes are both irrelevant to whether someone is a (...) woman, and indeed, female in a gendered sense. A third lesson is that trans women, cis women, alien women, and robot women are all women because to be a woman is to be an adult gendered female. This paper does not purport to settle complex normative questions of ethics or justice, including whether the ordinary meaning of “woman” ought to be retained or changed—though I do note plausible implications for these debates. This paper does purport to settle what the ordinary meaning of “woman” is, and in that regard contribute to important conceptual ground-clearing regarding what constitutes an ameliorative or revisionary definition of “woman.”. (shrink)

Globally, languages are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. To establish successful strategic options on how to protect the language's survival, members of linguistic communities must be knowledgeable of the reasons for language extinction or endangerment. This paper discusses how the number of people who speak Pangasinan, which is the eighth most common language in the Philippines, is decreasing over time and how this is affecting the language. It gives an outline of the Pangasinan language's current vitality and covers the Philippines' (...) language policy history. It also considers a situation in which globalization may provide unexpected chances for language revitalization. This study seeks to serve as a springboard for future research and aids teachers and other relevant educational personnel in identifying, comprehending, assessing, and implementing appropriate language-endangerment remedies. The authors also provide suggestions for future research based on their findings. (shrink)

This study is intended to provide in-depth insights into how design thinking and creativity issues are understood and possibly evolve in the course of design discussions in a company context. For that purpose, we use the seminar transcripts of the Design Thinking Research Symposium 12 (DTRS12) dataset “Tech-centred Design Thinking: Perspectives from a Rising Asia,” which are primarily concerned with how Korean companies implement design thinking and what role designers currently play. We employed a novel method of information processing based (...) on constructed dynamic semantic networks to investigate the seminar discussions according to company representatives and company size. We compared the quantitative dynamics in two seminars: the first involved managerial representatives of four companies, and the second involved specialized designers and management of a design center of single company. On the basis of dynamic semantic networks, we quantified the changes in four semantic measures—abstraction, polysemy, information content, and pairwise word similarity—in chronologically reconstructed individual design-thinking processes. Statistical analyses show that design thinking in the seminar with four companies, exhibits significant differences in the dynamics of abstraction, polysemy, and information content, compared to the seminar with the design center of single company. Both the decrease in polysemy and abstraction and the increase in information content in the individual design-thinking processes in the seminar with four companies indicate that design managers are focused on more concrete design issues, with more information and less ambiguous content to the final design product. By contrast, specialized designers manifest more abstract thinking and appear to exhibit a slightly higher level of divergence in their design processes. The results suggest that design thinking and creativity issues are articulated differently depending on designer roles and the company size. (shrink)

This chapter introduces readers to the empirical questions at issue in debates over gendered pronouns and assesses the plausibility of various possible answers to these questions. It has two parts. The first is a general introduction to the linguistics and psychology of grammatical gender. The second focuses on the meanings of gendered pronouns in English. It begins with a discussion of some methodological limitations of empirical approaches to the topic and the normative implications of those limitations. It then argues against (...) three simple theories of the semantics of gendered pronouns in English and proposes an alternative that fares better: the Gender-First View. Finally, it discusses the singular use of 'they' and its connection to nonbinary gender identities. (shrink)

Some generic generalizations have both a descriptive and a normative reading. The generic sentence “Philosophers care about the truth”, for instance, can be read as describing what philosophers in fact care about, but can also be read as prescribing philosophers to care about the truth. On Leslie’s account, this generic sentence has two readings due to the polysemy of the kind term “philosopher”. In this paper, I first argue against this polysemy account of descriptive/normative generics. In response, a contextualist semantic (...) theory for generic sentences is introduced. Based on this theory, I argue that descriptive/normative generics are contextually underspecified. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that hate speech expresses hate, and answer some objections to expressivist views. First, I briefly comment on some limitations of pragmatic accounts of harmful speech. I then present an expressive-normative view of derogatory discourse according to which it is expressive of an affective state by presupposing it. A linguistic act expressive of an affective state inherits the normativity that is constitutive of that state, as directed to its intentional object. If the act is successful, it (...) updates the conversational context with the normative appraisal conditions of the affective state presupposed. I argue that this model can be applied to hate speech. I rely on current research on the psychology of hate to identify the appraisal conditions, action tendencies, and motivational goals characteristic of hate. The account supplements other pragmatic accounts of hate speech. (shrink)

Este trabalho apresenta uma discussão que tem como objetivo principal propor um novo risco ao contorno da noção de intericonicidade que aparece em Courtine, precisamente, em 2003. Aí encontramos uma abertura que nos permite traçar outras curvaturas em sua noção. É justamente por este interstício que vamos propor a inclusão de dois elementos que, a nosso ver, estão na ordem da constituição das imagens: as utopias e heterotopias, conforme discussões iniciadas anteriormente por Araújo (2014a, 2014b). Para tanto, tomamos como pano (...) de fundo as imagens em movimento de duas produções francesas de horror e as imagens fotográficas da prisão de Abou Ghraib que serão analisadas à luz da discussão realizada por Foucault em Le corps utopique, les heterotopies e em Outros Espaços, juntamente com as discussões de Courtine e de Milanez acerca da intericonicidade (cf. COURTINE, 2005; 2011; 2013; MILANEZ, 2011a; 2011b; 2013a, 2013b). Os Elementos de Semiologia e A escrita do acontecimento de Barthes também fazem parte da discussão, já que este autor aparece desde cedo no trabalho de Courtine, precisamente, quando buscava apresentar a noção de intericonicidade. (shrink)

Politicians select their words meticulously, never losing sight of their ultimate communicative goal. Sometimes, their objective may be that of not being fully understood by a large portion of the audience. They can achieve this by means of dogwhistles; linguistic expressions that, in addition to their literal meaning, convey a concealed message to a specific sub-group of the audience. This paper focuses on the distinction between overt and covert dogwhistles introduced by J. Saul (2018). I argue that, even if the (...) distinction successfully captures a genuine divide within the category of dogwhistles, the account proposed by Saul to explain the distinction is unsatisfactory. In response to this state of affairs, I illustrate how the distinction between overt and covert dogwhistle can be refined and illuminated by incorporating it into the 'Simple Theory' of dogwhistles advanced by J. Khoo (2017). (shrink)

Dog whistling—speech that seems ordinary but sends a hidden, often derogatory message to a subset of the audience—is troubling not just for our political ideals, but also for our theories of communication. On the one hand, it seems possible to dog whistle unintentionally, merely by uttering certain expressions. On the other hand, the intention is typically assumed or even inferred from the act, and perhaps for good reason, for dog whistles seem misleading by design, not just by chance. In this (...) paper, I argue that, to understand when and why it’s possible to dog-whistle unintentionally (and indeed, intentionally), we’ll need to recognize the structure of our linguistic practices. For dog whistles and for covertly coded speech more generally, this structure is a pair of practices, one shared by all competent speakers and the other known only to some, but deployable in the same contexts. In trying to identify these enabling conditions, we’ll discover what existing theories of communicated content overlook by focusing on particular utterances in isolation, or on individual speakers’ mental states. The remedy, I argue, lies in attending to the ways in which what is said is shaped by the temporally extended, socio-politically structured linguistic practices that utterances instantiate. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo principal examinar y determinar las consecuencias de las metáforas contenidas en las obras de Diego Domínguez Caballero, fundador de la filosofía académica panameña. Tales metáforas se volvieron fundamentales para el desarrollo discursivo de la filosofía panameña y también para las ciencias sociales en el país, como la historia y la sociología. Con este fin, recurriremos a la teoría de las metáforas conceptuales desarrollada por Lakoff y otros como una herramienta de ayuda para analizar las que (...) Domínguez emplea. Del mismo modo, intentamos dar cuenta de la larga incidencia discursiva de dichas metáforas a la luz de los resultados de la investigación psicológica sobre el esencialismo. -/- The main objective of this work is to examine and determine the consequences of the metaphors contained in the works of Diego Domínguez Caballero, founder of Panamanian academic philosophy. Such metaphors became fundamental for the discursive development of Panamanian philosophy and also for the social sciences in this country, as history and sociology. To this end, we will turn to the theory of conceptual metaphors developed by Lakoff and others as a helpful tool in analyzing the ones used by Domínguez. In the same way, we try to account for the long discursive incidence of these metaphors in the light of the results of psychological research on essentialism. (shrink)

ملخص: تعتبر هذه المقالة بمثابة مدخل نظري لموضوع التنشئة الاجتماعية في المدرسة والمؤسسات الاجتماعية الأخرى، خاصة فيما يتعلق بتحديات التغيرات القيمية المجتمعية التي يعرفها عالم اليوم، و مدى قدرة وإمكانية تجويد آليات وأساليب التنشئة من أجل تحقيق الاندماج الاجتماعي. وتعالج المقالة إشكالية أساسية تتعلق بالهوة الكبيرة بين المدرسة ومؤسسات المجتمع بالرغم من كل المحاولات الإصلاحية للمنظومة التربوية، وبالرغم من الشعارات النظرية المعتمدة على مستوى البرامج الاستعجالية والاستدراكية لتصحيح ما يمكن إصلاحه، غير أن واقع السلوكات الفردية والجماعية داخل المجتمع تبرز المستوى (...) الهزيل لمخرجات المدرسة، وتمت الاستعانة في الأخير بالمدرسة المغربية كنموذج للدراسة، لإبراز هذه التحديات القيمية في المجتمع المغربي. وقد تمّت معالجة هذا الموضوع من خلال الإجابة عن مجموعة من الأسئلة: ما التنشئة الاجتماعية؟ الأسرة، والمدرسة والمجتمع: أية علاقة؟ المدرسة المغربية أمام إشكالية التغيرات القيمية: ما مفهوم القيم؟ ما علاقة التربية بمنظومة القيم؟ بأي معنى يمكن الحديث عن أزمة القيم في المدرسة المغربية؟ ما واقع مدرسة القيم في ضوء التحولات المجتمعية؟ ........Abstract: This article is a theoretical framework of the theme of social education at school and other social institutions, especially the issues related to the challenge of the changes of the social values that the whole world is going through, and the possibility of upgrading the mechanisms of social education for social integration. This article tackles a fundamental issue that is linked to the huge gap between school and social institutions despite the attempts to reform the educational system. And in spite of the theoretical slogans that are rely on the level of emergency programmes for carrying out reforms. This theme has been tackled through answering the following questions: What is social education and its relation with family, school, and society? what are values? What is the relationship between education and values' system? In what sense can the crisis of values at the Moroccan school be discussed? What is the reality of the school of values in view of social changes? (shrink)

This book examines the central role that language plays in understanding and human flourishing. The book begins by exploring Heidegger's idea that language is an essential element of how we dwell in the world and is, for the most part, ready-to-hand for us. With Gadamer, I then begin to explore phenomena where language is not ready-to-hand but calls for interpretation. The latter half of the book explores distinct ways in which language can become unready-to-hand for individuals (e.g., in cases of (...) trauma, depression, and social subordination) and examines the way that such situations have been analyzed by twentieth-century Continental thinkers (e.g., Blanchot, Kristeva, Derrida). (shrink)

Este estudo tem como objetivo principal discutir qual o lugar da memória nas pesquisas históricas empreendidas pelo filósofo francês Michel Foucault, o qual foi responsável pelo desenvolvimento de duas frentes metodológicas de trabalho: a arqueologia do saber e a genealogia do poder, conhecidas hoje como arqueogenealogia foucaultiana. Ao longo de mais de 30 anos dedicados a estas pesquisas, Michel Foucault ganhou projeção nacional e internacional pela sua inquietante forma de aliar a militância política com o trabalho acadêmico, demonstrando, com isso, (...) qual era o papel do intelectual frente aos desafios e demandas no mundo do pós-guerra. Recebeu a maior honraria no mundo da intelectualidade francesa ao ser eleito professor do célebre Collège de France, assumindo, por mais de uma década, a cátedra história dos sistemas de pensamentos. Em uma de suas últimas entrevistas, declarou que todos os seus gestos tinham como principal objetivo: criar a história como os seres humanos se tornam sujeitos em nossa cultura. Esta declaração deixa evidente qual o lugar que a história ocupa em sua obra, mas qual seria o lugar da memória nesses seus empreendimentos? Por que a história aparece em seu trabalho como lugar privilegiado enquanto a memória tem um lugar de coadjuvante? São estas as reflexões iniciais que buscamos realizar neste nosso trabalho. (shrink)

Language is often conceived of today as providing a person with a worldview and a set of communicative norms that one accepts unambiguously. However, in his 1992 lecture, “Monolingualism of the Other,” Jacques Derrida insists that his mother tongue is for him “not a natural element, not the transparency of the ether, but an absolute habitat.” In other words, while French is an intimate part of his existence, his relationship to it is nevertheless ambiguous. Derrida claims that his situation is (...) not exceptional though, since for no person is language simply a “natural element.” In this essay, I examine first the phenomenological basis for this controversial claim, drawing from Derrida’s lecture as well as earlier explorations by Martin Heidegger to elucidate the point. Later I turn to address the ethical-political dimensions of Derrida’s claim, explaining how it serves to protest against a problematic process of consolidating power. (shrink)

ما المجتمع القروي؟ وما هي أنواع وأشكال البنيات والمؤسسات التي تشكله؟ وكيف تتفاعل؟ وما هي أشكال التضامن والتعاقد في العالم القروي؟ وما نوع التراتب الاجتماعي الذي يتشكل فيه؟ ما الثابت وما المتحول فيه؟ وما هي أشكال وأسباب هذا التحول؟ ما مصدر السلطة؟ هل "اجماعة" أم القبيلة أو المخزن؟ وما هي انعكاسات ذلك كله على الحياة الاجتماعية بالقرية؟ استطاع الإنسان القروي، على مر التاريخ، أن يتأقلم مع بيئته رغم قساوة الظروف الطبيعية، حيث عمل على توفير الشروط المناسبة لهذا التأقلم، من خلال (...) إنشاء قلاع وقصور وقصبات، مستعملا الطين والطوب والحجر والماء والتبن، ومنتوجات محلية من خشب الأشجار. كما تم خلق نظام مائي يعتمد على مصادر تقليدية مثل الآبار و"الخطارات" وأشكال بورية، من أجل بناء نظام إنتاجي محكم، للتحكم في تعبئة الثروات المائية والترابية والنباتية، من أجل ضمان استقراره واستمراريته. هذا التفاعل مع البيئة الصحراوية في مجالات الحياة الطبيعية والثقافية والاجتماعية، يبرز الأهمية البالغة لهذه البيئة باعتبارها نظاما وإنتاجا فكريا يحمل تصورات ومعتقدات وطرائق وأساليب الإنسان القروي في التفكير والعمل، سواء تعلق الأمر فالأفراد أو الجماعات. وبهذا المعنى، تعتبر العمارة والتنظيم الاجتماعي والثقافي والاقتصادي والسياسي للمناطق القروية والواحية مدخلا من مداخل فهم الحياة الاجتماعية بمختلف أبعادها، والتعرف على التحول الذي طرأ عليها على مر التاريخ، ومختلف المؤثرات الداخلية والخارجية المساهمة في هذه الدينامية، ″هذا التغير أو التغيير في نمط الحياة يعود في جزء منه إلى تداعيات السياسة الاستعمارية بهذه المناطق التي عملت على هدم البنيات التقليدية القائمة على الترحال والتنقل والتضامن الآلي، وإعادة بناء بنيات جديدة تستجيب للمتطلبات الثقافية والاقتصادية التي أصبحت تمليها الحياة العصرية" . وبهذا، يجد المجتمع القروي ذاته أمام مجموعة من التحديات والإكراهات، تتأرجح بين الاستقرار والتأقلم مع متطلباته، وبين التحضر وقوة زحفه، وكل ذلك سينعكس على سلوكات الأفراد والبيئة الطبيعية، خاصة أمام ندرة الماء الذي تتمركز حوله جل العلاقات الاجتماعية والقيمية والثقافية، مما سينعكس لا محالة على القطاع الفلاحي والزراعي الذي يعد مفتاح النشاطات الاقتصادية والمعيشية اليومية بالواحات. كما أن التزايد الديمغرافي بالمجتمع القروي أمام قلة الموارد الاقتصادية، وهشاشة السكن القديم في غياب الترميم، سيدفع البعض إلى الهجرة الداخلية إلى المراكز المدينية، والخارجية إلى بلاد أوروبا. الملاحظة الأولية في فضاءات القرية تبرز نوعا من الثبات في مجموعة من البنيات خاصة الثقافية في جانب منها، والتي تتبدى من خلال الطقوس والعادات والتقاليد اليومية، غير أن هناك تحولات تطفو على السطح من خلال سلوكات وممارسات ظاهرة في المعيش اليومي للإنسان وفي سيرورة المجال. (shrink)

O presente trabalho busca refletir, no sentido derridiano, sobre o ensino do Português Língua Estrangeira (PLE) à luz do Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência para a aprendizagem, ensino e avaliação de línguas (QECR). Tal documento, juntamente com o Portfólio Europeu das Línguas, se apresenta como um instrumento essencialmente linguístico para a harmonização do ensino de línguas vivas europeias e com uma perspectiva intercultural. Dessa forma, o QECR advoga que o ensino de língua deve promover o desenvolvimento do aprendiz, da sua (...) identidade em resposta à experiência enriquecedora da diferença na língua e na cultura. Exige-se do aluno muito mais do que simplesmente imitar ou memorizar. O QECR busca descrever exaustivamente aquilo que o aprendiz de uma língua, no nosso caso o PLE, tem que aprender para ser capaz de comunicar, interagir e quais os conhecimentos e habilidades ele tem de desenvolver para serem eficazes na sua atuação. A descrição abrange também o contexto cultural dessa língua. Sendo assim, o QECR é mais uma alternativa para aqueles que trabalham com o português na modalidade de língua 2 (PLE) no sentido da compreensão das alteridades, da cidadania e da democracia num mundo sem fronteiras em que “Navegar é preciso”, i.e., interagir, dialogar. (shrink)

This paper argues that an addressee's failure to recognize a speaker's authority can constitutes another form of silencing.

Nossa pesquisa vai refletir sobre o discurso da política educacional brasileira implementada a partir da Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional, particularmente, aquele que trata da formação docente. Ele tem imposto uma reconfiguração da identidade dos professores, concedendo-lhes uma autonomia de autoconhecimento e resolução dos problemas cotidianos, que, no nosso entendimento, não corresponde ao que acontece na escola (VILLA, 1998; LAWN, 2001; VEIGA, 2002; VASCONCELLOS, 2003). Assim, pretendemos apresentar e discutir sobre as representações da identidade do professor nos (...) PCN (Português). Esperamos, com isso, contribuir para a construção de uma política de formação de professores sensível às diferenças culturais e identitárias dos professores no Brasil. (shrink)

Este ensaio visa refletir sobre as questões de tradução levantadas por Jacques Derrida (1987), questões essas que não chegam a formalizar uma teoria da tradução, mas têm elas o ato de traduzir o original como veredas a ser percorridas por um sujeito endividado, ou seja, o tradutor. No dizer de Derrida, “a tarefa do tradutor indica a lei e a missão outorgada pelo outro a que o tradutor deve responder”. Neste sentido, entendemos aqui a tradução como um ato de diálogo, (...) de negociação, uma vez que a língua, nesta perspectiva, é aquilo que não se deixa possuir. Com isso, os problemas da tradução são - de um lado - o problema da língua, de sua natureza heterogênea, fugidia; e, do outro, do modelo tradicional de tradução que se apoia na concepção de língua como algo homogêneo em que a diversidade, o diferente são vistos como pecado, como transgressão da linguagem (adâmica). (shrink)