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UID:2013@ub.edu
DTSTART:20180525T090000Z
DTEND:20180525T110000Z
DTSTAMP:20250928T161908Z
URL:https://www.ub.edu/grc_logos/activities/whats-wrong-with-slurs/
SUMMARY:What's Wrong With Slurs?
DESCRIPTION:Robin Jeshion (University of Southern California) Contemporary 
 work on slurring terms has focused on accounting for their distinctive sem
 antic\, pragmatic\, and sociolinguistic properties. Taking linguistic data
  as paramount\, philosophers have explored the projective behavior of slur
 s under negation and modals\; explored how slurs embed in attitude attribu
 tions\; and explored the variable offense profile of slurs when used\, men
 tioned\, explicitly quoted\, and used in free indirect discourse.&nbsp\; T
 he theorizing has borne fruit in identifying various mechanisms by which t
 his linguistic data may be explained. But almost all theorizing (including
  my own previous work) has neglected to probe much further about how slurs
  function as tools of subordination and how their use is a threat to human
  dignity.&nbsp\; In this paper\, I take two related steps toward furtherin
 g this goal.&nbsp\;First\, I argue that slurs have certain specific status
 es that transcends how they give rise to this linguistic data about projec
 tion\, attitude reports\, offense profiles in use\, mention\, quotation. S
 lurs are symbols. They are symbols not only in the untendentious sense in 
 which all words quawords are symbols. They are in additionsymbols in the w
 ay in which flags are symbols of the countries they represent and pink hat
 s are symbols of women&rsquo\;s rights and resistance to Trump&rsquo\;s po
 litical agendas that threatens them. I shall argue that there are multitud
 e of typesof symbols that are candidates to model how slurs function as sy
 mbols\, and that what unites all these distinct varieties of symbolization
  as models of slurs-as-symbols is that they all also function as tools of 
 dehumanization.&nbsp\;Second\, I argue that because slurs are symbols that
  possess the basic function of being tools of dehumanization\, they consti
 tute a special kind of threat to human dignity. Here I follow some excelle
 nt recent work done on humiliation\, degradation\, and dehumanization\, as
  well as work done on the distinctive wrong in torture\, both of which hav
 e been inspired by Margalit&rsquo\;s &lsquo\;negative approach&rsquo\; to 
 respect in The Decent Society. According to Margalit\, humans are distinct
 ive creatures insofar as they are capable of feeling pain and of experienc
 ing genuine suffering as a result of &lsquo\;merely&rsquo\; symbolically v
 iolent acts. Kuch [2011] and Susman have extended this point. Kuch argues 
 convincingly that violence meant to humiliate victims always has a symboli
 c element. Susman [2005] argues in a similar vein that what is distinctive
 ly wrong with torture is not the pain itself\, but rather its being used a
 s a tool to humiliate by forcing the victim to\, effectively\, collude wit
 h the torturer\, and do so against her will: to torture\, the torturer ens
 ures that the victim experiences her own agency as undermined\, as &lsquo\
 ;owned&rsquo\; by the torturer. This perversion of the ordinary relationsh
 ip of one&rsquo\;s experience of one&rsquo\;s own agency is inevitably met
 a-representational and thus symbolic. From these two paradigms\, I aim to 
 show that one way weapon uses of slurs undermine human dignity is by their
  functioning to symbolize to the community slurs&rsquo\; targets as lesser
  human by forcing targets to perceive and experience themselvesas lesser h
 umans.
CATEGORIES:Extra talks
LOCATION:Unusual venue: Room 205\, 2nd Floor (UB\, Barcelona)
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 ;X-TITLE=Unusual venue: Room 205\, 2nd Floor (UB\, Barcelona):geo:0,0
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