PHIL321L

Language helps us communicate and create important connections with others. Yet it can be used to disparage, marginalize, or subordinate people. With the help of classic ideas from the philosophy of language, students analyze a number of contemporary issues around power and the effects of social discourse. Topics may include: free speech; the impact of hate speech, pornography, slurs, and other harmful speech; generalizations (so-called generics); propaganda and ideology; the representation of gender, race, and other social categories in language; the relationship between our social position and the effect of our speech; and resistance to harmful speech. Prerequisite(s): two courses in philosophy.