Universität Wien
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180246 SE The Politics of Language (2023S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 09.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 16.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 23.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 30.03. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 20.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 27.04. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 04.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 11.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 25.05. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 01.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 15.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 22.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Thursday 29.06. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/3. Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Language is not just used to talk about the world or communicate information, but also to do things in the social-political arena: to approve, convince, create new norms and social facts, but also to deceive, derogate, dehumanize, and spew propaganda. And questions about how language should be used, which languages should be used, and about language preservation are themselves political questions. Such social-political aspects of language-use can be studied from a variety of perspectives. In this course we will see how they can be illuminated with the help of theoretical tools from philosophy of language. We will study controversies about pronouns, work on the semantics of pejoratives and slurs, implicature and coded communication, speech act theory and its applications in feminist philosophy, conversational scorekeeping and accomodation, the lying vs. misleading distinction and questions about plausible deniability, as well as worries about language extinction. As a result, you will become equipped with the theoretical tools to understand and engage with these issues as they arise in contemporary society.

Assessment and permitted materials

First: midterm essay, deadline: 18.05, 40%
Second: final essay, deadline: TBD, 60%

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Minimum requirements: regular attendance, completion of all assessments
Assessment criteria: the overall grade will be a weighted average of the two partial grades: mid-term paper (40%), final essay (60%).

Examination topics

The first essay will be on a topic derived from the first part of the course (W1-W10), the second can be either a substantial development of the first or an entirely new essay on a topic from the second part. I will suggest possible topics as we go along.

Reading list

We will read a range of texts from Austin, Bolinger, Camp, Dembroff & Wodak, Grice, Haslanger, Hom, Jeshion, Khoo, Kukla, Langton, Lewis, McGowan, Nowak, Saul, Stalnaker etc. For more info, see the syllabus.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 27.04.2023 13:27