Dear self-isolating philosophers, Rejoice, for the Meaning Reading Group has returned - now via Zoom! If you are interested in discussing exciting current papers in Philosophy of Language, please join us as we do just that in the coming weeks. As a special twist for this Easter term, we will be making use of the digital classroom to host some authors to discuss their papers with us. Everyone is welcome to attend!
For our first meeting - next WEDNESDAY, 20 May, 4.00-6.00pm UK time - we will be joined by Prof. Quill R. Kukla (Georgetown University) to discuss their wonderful paper "Slurs, Interpellation, and Ideology". Please find below a PDF and an abstract* of the paper. Since this is a reading group, please make sure to read the paper beforehand - Professor Kukla will only give a brief introduction at the session. You will receive the Zoom invitation in a separate reminder e-mail. The paper we are reading: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4m9zqcaecuqvykg/Kukla%20-%20Slurs%2C%20Interpellation%2C%20and%20Ideology.pdf?dl=0 If you want to stay up to date with all things Meaning Reading Group, please subscribe to the mailing list: https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/soc-plrg?fbclid=IwAR1ftoJaX3Ac9Ma6m1ghM-QbTKNqn-Zd3riSz2UFoTQXFJx506AmMhriKcg All the very best, Nikki Ernst *ABSTRACT: The goal of this paper is to give an account of the pragmatic and social function of slurs, taken as speech acts. I develop a theory of the distinctive illocutionary force and pragmatic structure of slurs. I argue that slurs help to produce subjects who occupy social identities carved out by pernicious ideologies, and that they do this whether or not anyone involved intends for the slur to work that way or has any particular feelings or conscious thoughts associated with using or being targeted by the slur. I offer an Althusser-inspired account of what an ideology is, as well as of the mechanisms by which slurs can serve to cue and strengthen ideologies. A slur, I argue, is a kind of interpellation, which reduces its target to a generic identity and derogates and subordinates its target. I explore how slurs and ideologies work in tandem to constitute and fortify one another. I end by applying my account to see how well it fits and helps illuminate three quite different, especially complex slurs. _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: https://lists.cam.ac.uk/pipermail/phil-events/ Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
