This Handbook represents a collective exploration of the emerging field of applied philosophy of language. The volume covers a broad range of areas where philosophy engages with linguistic aspects of our social world, including such hot topics as dehumanizing speech, dogwhistles, taboo language, pornography, appropriation, implicit bias, speech acts, and the ethics of communication. An international line-up of contributors adopt a variety of approaches and methods in their investigation of these linguistic phenomena, drawing on linguistics and the human and social sciences as well as on different philosophical subdisciplines.
The aim is to map out fruitful areas of research and to stimulate discussion with thought-provoking essays by leading and emerging philosophers.
1: Luvell Anderson and Ernie Lepore: Introduction 2: Sally Haslanger and Stephen Yablo: Amelioration as Course Correction 3: Ángeles Eraña and Axel Barceló: A world where many worlds fit 4: J. L. Dowell: Silencing and Assertion: An Account of their Conversational Dynamic 5: Quill R. Kukla: The Pragmatics of Technologically Mediated Online Speech: Don>'t @ Me! 6: Robin Jeshion: The Truth About Slurs 7: Una Stojni'c and Ernie Lepore: Slurring Words 8: Rebecca Roache: On Passive Aggression 9: Timothy Jay: Taboo Word Research: Problems from the Past, Plans for the Future 10: Louise Antony: Speech-Act Theory in Feminist Thought 11: Mari Mikkola: Pornography as Oppressive Speech 12: Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini and Michael Glanzberg: Pronouns and Gender 13: E. M. Hernandez and Archie Crowley: How to Do Things with Gendered Words 14: Iz González Vázquez, Martina Rosola, and Anna Klieber: Beyond Pronouns: Gender Visibility and Neutrality across Languages 15: Anita L. Allen: Privacy, Critical Definition and Racial Justice 16: Jules Holroyd and Matthew J. Cull: Gender-neutrality and family leave policies 17: Esa Saarinen: In Praise of Spoken Philosophy 18: Teresa Blankmeyer Burke: Boxed Ears and Swiveling Fists: American Sign Language, Audism, and Power 19: Luvell Anderson: Resistance and Reclamation: Notorious Thugs 20: José Medina: Public Protest and Silencing 21: Jeffrey King: The Contents of Maps 22: Gabriel Greenberg: Map Semantics and the Geography of Meaning 23: John Kulvicki: The Semantics of Iconography and Code Words 24: Ray Drainville and Jennifer Saul: Visual and Linguistic Dogwhistles 25: erman Cappelen and Josh Dever: AI with Alien Content and Alien Metasemantics H 26: Daian Flórez: Semantic Change in the Language of Technology 27: Eliot Michaelson, Jessica Pepp, and Rachel Sterken: On Retweeting 28: Matthew McKeever: Ideology and Intersectionality 29: Tina Chanter and Andrew Cutrofello: Shakespeare's Proper Names 30: Noël Carroll: Art and Language
Luvell Anderson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Faculty in African American Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at Syracuse University. Before coming to Syracuse, he was an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Memphis and Alain Locke Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University. His research lies principally in Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Humor, and Philosophy of Race. He has published articles on the semantics of racial slurs and racist humor, and is co-editor of the Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race (Routledge Press). Professor Anderson is currently working on a book, The Ethics of Racial Humor, which explores themes of race, humor, and the connection between ethics and aesthetics. Ernie Lepore is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has authored numerous books and papers in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, including recently Imagination and Convention (with Matthew Stone, OUP, 2015), and Liberating Content (2016) with Herman Cappelen. He is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language (with Una Stojnic, 2024) and of the series Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language, with David Sosa.
