What is the relation between language, communication, and values? In Slurs and Thick Terms, Bianca Cepollaro explores the ways in which certain pieces of evaluative language, such as slurs and so-called thick terms, not only reflect speakers’ moral perspectives, but also contribute to promote the speaker’s evaluative stance.

Counterspeech is communication that tries to counteract potential harm brought about by other speech. Theoretical interest in counterspeech partly derives from a libertarian ideal – as captured in the claim that the solution to bad speech is more speech – and partly from a recognition that well-meaning attempts to counteract harm through speech can easily misfire or backfire. Here we survey recent work on the question of what makes counterspeech effective at remedying or preventing harm, in those cases where it (...) is effective, as well as work investigating when and why there is a duty to engage in counterspeech. We suggest that the most fruitful area for philosophical inquiry on this topic, currently, relates to the questions about efficacy. Specifically, we argue that there is a need for better frameworks for conceptualizing the efficacy of counterspeech. Philosophers have collaborative work to do, alongside social scientists, in developing these frameworks. (shrink)

In this article, Bianca Thoilliez draws on pragmatist notions of fallibilism and pluralism to develop proposals for possible educational interventions to address the problem of “post-truth” conditions. Post-truth, she contends, is not only a political danger for liberal democracies, but it also poses a serious threat of extinction for our educational practices. With the help of some of Bruno Latour's and Danna Haraway's categories, and with the narrative intervention of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, Thoilliez attempts to (...) adapt both Charles Peirce's and William James's classic pragmatist ideas in order to experiment with new horizons of thought capable of overcoming the exhausted pedagogical divides of docility/indocility, conserve/discard, and optimism/pessimism that often seem woven into the definition of educational relationships, the establishment of curriculum content, and the orientation of pedagogical actions. As an alternative, she recommends building communitarian alliances of fallibilistic inquiry and promoting practices of pluralistic cultural provision as more useful educational ends-in-view that embody a down-to-earth pedagogy capable of reinstating trust, taking care of truths, looking for ways of keeping our lives together, and making education possible again. Thus, here Thoilliez proposes a pedagogy that neither fixes nor evades our troubles, but one that stays with them. (shrink)

In this paper, the authors present a presuppositional account for a class of evaluative terms that encode both a descriptive and an evaluative component: slurs and thick terms. The authors discuss several issues related to the hybrid nature of these terms, such as their projective behavior, the ways in which one may reject their evaluative content, and the ways in which evaluative content is entailed or implicated (as the case may be) by the use of such terms.

The state of debates around the topic of `populism' has made clear the difficulties that exist to provide a coherent definition of the concept. There is much to be argued from historical, epistemological, comparative and sociological perspectives that may provide clarity to the uses of the term. As the world meets new scenarios of uncommon styles of doing politics and the themes of ideological polarization and social segregation take hold, the question about the value of `populism' as a theoretical tool (...) needs to be met with an affirmative stance that delineates its principal characteristics. The present text introduces the reader to four new perspectives that serve such a purpose and locates them among the relevant contemporary literature. (shrink)

Quem introduzir num motor de busca da Internet o nome de Pinheiro dos Santos encontrará referências em estudos académicos e científicos da Oceânia à Europa, da América do Sul à do Norte, nas mais variadas áreas disciplinares Todos referirão o autor da filosofia da Ritmanálise E quase todos repetirão o erro de que era brasileiro, aquele professor do quadro da primeira Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, desde 1919 até à sua dissolução em 1927, cuja obra principal só conhecemos (...) através de fontes indirectas, em particular do francês Gaston Bachelard, vindo daí o epíteto de fantasma E quem se der ao trabalho de investigar o nome de Lúcio dos Santos encontrará pistas de um personagem singular de combatividade cívico-política, desde a greve académica de 1907, passando pelo 5 de Outubro de 1910, até ao exílio político brasileiro que vai de 1927 a 1950, data do seu falecimento, testemunho significativo e interventivo de mais de metade da história portuguesa do Século XX Em ambos os casos temos uma e só pessoa, o bracarense Lúcio Alberto Pinheiro dos Santos E um personagem conhecido em todo o mundo e quase inteiramente desconhecido entre nós Uma realidade a que já nos temos vindo a habituar Mas que não é uma fatalidade como se demonstra por este trabalho arqueológico de reconstrução de uma personalidade multímoda cujos textos, há muito perdidos pelos acervos e outros inteiramente inéditos entre nós, vêem agora a luz do dia colocando-se à disposição da comunidade científica e do público em geral, em particular das novas gerações Em qualquer dos casos, quer numa vertente quer noutra, esta obra de Pedro Baptista desvela os contornos de um fantasma e fixa mais um nome incontornável na história do pensamento português, filosófico e político, do Século XX. (shrink)

We consider the complex interactions between rape culture and epistemology. A central case study is the consideration of a deferential attitude about the epistemology of sexual assault testimony. According to the deferential attitude, individuals and institutions should decline to act on allegations of sexual assault unless and until they are proven in a formal setting, i.e., a criminal court. We attack this deference from several angles, including the pervasiveness of rape culture in the criminal justice system, the epistemology of testimony (...) and norms connecting knowledge and action, the harms of tacit idealizations away from important contextual factors, and a contextualist semantics for 'knows' ascriptions. (shrink)

We present two experimental studies on the Italian expressive ‘stronzo’. The first study tests whether, and to which extent, the acceptability of using an expressive is sensitive to the information available in the context. The study looks both at referential uses of expressives and predicative uses of expressives. The results show that expressives are sensitive to contextual information to a much higher degree than the non-expressive control items in their referential use, but also, albeit to a lesser degree, in their (...) predicative use. The second study tests whether the lower acceptability of expressives in their predicative use may be simply due to saying something negative about someone. A comparison between expressives, such as ‘jerk’, and non-expressive negative terms, such as ‘nasty’ or ‘unbearable’, suggests that it is the expressive nature of these terms, rather than the mere negative valence, that affects acceptability. Our studies present a major challenge to the existing accounts of expressives, and raise several theoretical issues that still call for an answer. (shrink)

ABSTRACT A widespread thesis in contemporary philosophy of language is that certain speech constitutes, rather than merely causes, harm. McGowan develops a prescriptive account of harm constitution, according to which harm-constituting speech enacts norms that prescribe harm. Ordinary verbal bigotry, she claims, is harmful in this sense. We submit that the norms enacted by ordinary racist (or otherwise bigoted) utterances are not prescriptive. In our view, ordinary verbal bigotry enacts ‘non-neutrally’ permissive norms rendering harmful behaviours locally permitted—and indeed preferred over (...) non-harmful options. We conclude by arguing that, although ordinary verbal bigotry enacts non-prescriptive norms, it can still constitute harm. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider the phenomenon of evaluation reversal for two classes of evaluative terms that have received a great deal of attention in philosophy of language and linguistics: slurs and thick terms. I consider three approaches to analyze evaluation reversal: (i) lexical deflationist account, (ii) ambiguity account and (iii) echoic account. My purpose is mostly negative: my aim is to underline the shortcomings of these three strategies, in order to possibly pave the way for more suitable accounts.

The case states that a male same-sex couple entered into a surrogacy arrangement with an unrelated surrogate using donor sperm and the surrogate’s eggs. M is the legal mother pursuant to s33 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. Though the facts tell us that there was no legally binding arrangement, this is in fact the position of the law: under s1A Surrogacy Arrangements Act, no surrogacy arrangements can ever be binding on the parties. It is not clear whether (...) the donor sperm is from one of the same-sex couple or not. If it was donor sperm and not from either intended father, this is not an arrangement that would be recognised in law, as one of the men must be genetically related to the child in order for them to obtain legal parenthood via a parental order, under s54 HFEA 2008. They could apply to adopt the child, although they may fall foul of adoption legislation1 if any money has moved between them and M and they do not fall within an exemption.2 In any event, an adoption cannot be achieved in time for them to obtain legal parenthood in a crisis situation. In the absence of a biological connection and the resulting legal parenthood, in order to obtain parental responsibility for the child to allow them to make decisions about Baby T’s care, the men would need to apply for leave to apply for a child arrangements order pursuant to s10 Children Act 1989. However, in the …. (shrink)

In this article I reflect on my experiences of using Facebook as a recruitment tool. Although there were many benefits associated with using this method of recruitment, there were also several unanticipated ethical dilemmas that arose. This article reflects on these dilemmas, locating them within some broader concerns around online research and privacy, and considers some potential avenues for avoiding similar issues in future research. It became apparent that these ethical issues were heightened for me as a doctoral researcher in (...) a process of identity transition. I consider how this state of ‘shifting’ identity heightened my experience of these ethical tensions, and brought to the fore questions around online identity management and ways of ‘doing’ identity online. (shrink)

Abstract In the last fifteen years philosophers and linguists have turned their attention to slurs: derogatory expressions that target certain groups on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality and so on. This interest is due to the fact that, on the one hand, slurs possess puzzling linguistic properties; on the other hand, the questions they pose are related to other crucial issues, such as the descriptivism/expressivism divide, the semantics/pragmatics divide and, generally speaking, the theory of meaning. Despite these (...) recent investigations about pejoratives, there is no widely accepted explanation of slurs:in my paper I consider the intuitions we have about slurs and I assess the difficulties that the main theories encounter in explaining how these terms work in order to identify the phenomena that a satisfactory account of slurs needs to explain. Then, I focus on the pragmatic theories that deal with the notions of conventional implicature and pragmatic presupposition: I assess the objections that have been raised and I propose two ways of defending the presuppositional account, taking into consideration the notion of cancellability. I will claim that the reason why most pragmatic strategies seem to fail to account for slurs is that they assume a rigid divide between conventional implicatures and presuppositions that should not be taken for granted. Reconsidering the relationship between these two notions gives a hint about how a pragmatic account of slurs should look like. Finally, I assess the problem of which presupposition slurs in fact trigger. (shrink)

Reclamation is usually taken to be the phenomenon wherein in-groups employ a slur to express pride, foster camaraderie, or subvert discriminatory structures. We provide data showing that, under some special circumstances, out-groups successfully reclaim slurs too. Thus, the mainstream restriction to in-groups is merely an approximation of the correct extension of the phenomenon – of who does actually reclaim slurs. Removing any such stipulative restriction opens a path towards further theorizing into the nature of reclamation.

Apresentação v. 13, n. 37, Jan./Mar. 2015.

Este artigo apresenta os principais dados, e algumas hipóteses interpretativas, sobre uma primeira leitura da pesquisa “Geração universitária: perfil atual. Um estudo de caso”, com apoio do CNPq, realizada através de survey aplicado entre novembro e dezembro de 2013, com estudantes da PUC Minas. Igualmente, objetiva-se apresentar dados comparativos, nos elementos possíveis, pois houve ampliação e mudança no questionário, com relatório de survey de 1990, sobre o “Perfil do Estudante da PUC-MG”, de modo a oferecer um quadro de duas gerações (...) de estudantes desta universidade e responder: o que mudou em 23 anos? Ao revelar as mudanças e continuidades no perfil dos estudantes, a pesquisa oferece dados e elementos para se conhecer melhor o jovem atual e assim indicar não apenas à universidade, mas também àqueles que pesquisam sobre Ensino Superior e religião, o desafio de analisar e aprofundar nessas temáticas. Destacam-se alguns aspectos fundamentais do Perfil do Estudante da PUC Minas: dados gerais e demográficos , dados escolares e acadêmicos, como origem e avaliação escolar, caracterização religiosa e sociopolítica, e a situação da sexualidade e da fecundidade. (shrink)

While civic education may not always be explicitly included in school curriculums, it can still be imparted through various non-teaching practices and in different places. In this article, we will delve into three potential educational spaces -memorials, museums, and libraries- that are commonly found in Western democracies. We will explore the significance and scope of each of these spaces and discuss their respective ethical, political, and aesthetic responsibilities. Additionally, we will examine how they possess agency and can influence the educational (...) process, recognizing that even non-human entities, such as nature itself, can play an important role in shaping our understanding of civic education. (shrink)

A pesquisa "Perfil do Estudante das Instituições Católicas de Ensino Superior" foi realizada e concebida com o objetivo de contribuir para o planejamento e o subsídio do trabalho da pastoral universitária. O projeto nasceu do interesse do setor de Pastoral Universitária da ABESC - Associação Brasileira de Escolas Superiores Católicas - em conhecer a realidade juvenil para esse planejamento pastoral. Um ano antes havia sido realizada a pesquisa "Perfil do Estudante da PUC-MG" que serviu como modelo. Participaram da pesquisa 22 (...) instituições, correspondendo ao universo de 122.917 estudantes. Porém, apenas 17 instituições (106.403), em sete estados da federação, enviaram seus dados que foram analisados neste relatório, numa amostra de 3.039 alunos (2,9%). Coordenou a pesquisa o prof. Paulo Agostinho N. Baptista, que atuou junto aos professores da PUC Minas Euclides Guimarães Neto e Maria Clara Baeta Galuppo na análise e redação do relatório. Foram consultores os professores da mesma universidade Pe. Alberto Antoniazzi, Maria Beatriz Ribeiro de Oliveira Gonçalves, Elisete de Assis Rebello e Romualdo Francisco Dâmaso. O professor Carlos Eduardo Rezende Jacob atuou com analista de sistema e a professora Vírginia Mata Machado como revisora. A versão original impressa do relatório foi datilografada e está na Biblioteca Pe. Alberto Antoniazzi, da PUC Minas. A publicação do relatório online tem o objetivo de divulgar e disponibilizar essa importante referência para estudos sobre o perfil da juventude universitária, especialmente em relação à temática religiosa. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to provide arguments based on linguistic evidence that discard a truth-conditional analysis of slurs and pave the way for more promising approaches. We consider Hom and May’s version of TCA, according to which the derogatory content of slurs is part of their truth-conditional meaning such that, when slurs are embedded under semantic operators such as negation, there is no derogatory content that projects out of the embedding. In order to support this view, Hom and (...) May make two moves: they point to cases where it looks like projection does not occur and they try to explain away cases where projection seems to occur by appealing to a pragmatic phenomenon that they call ‘offense’. Pace Hom and May, we argue that the derogatory content of slurs does in fact project and, in advocating for our claim, we show that those cases where it looks like projection does not occur are in fact metalinguistic uses in which slurs are not really used, by relying on three linguistic tests ; and we refute Hom and May’s attempt to explain why speakers would entertain the supposedly wrong intuition that the derogatory content of slurs projects out of semantic embedding, by focusing on the case of slurs for fictional entities. We conclude that Hom and May’s strategies to support TCA ultimately fail. (shrink)

ABSTRACTFor Rorty, any attempt to articulate a theory of truth as such is of no interest. This implies that although it may be meaningful to differentiate the truths from the falsehoods, it is pointless to say what the property of goodness is in the things we believe are good to do. Rorty points out that our no longer understanding Philosophy – with the capital ‘P’–as the framing of normative notions would make room for a post-philosophical culture where the philosophers’ activity (...) would be closer to the practices of cultural critique with the self-imposed limitation of devoting themselves exclusively to advancing descriptions of how things relate to each other. This article aims to explore what would happen if this provocation were brought to the field of Pedagogy. Taking on this Rortyan theme, keeping hope on the potentially liberating and transformative power of education implies a hopeful attitude by which individuals involved in education processes express their love for the world as a commitment to a better future, as well as their belief in its possibilities. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar a problemática inserida no discurso coaching alinhada à lógica neoliberal, o impacto deste pensamento na trajetória dos jovens em formação pelo Programa de Trabalho Protegido na Adolescência (PTPA) e de que modo esse discurso remodela os aspectos da subjetividade do sujeito em desenvolvimento. Para tanto contou-se com material de fonte primária obtido em atividade de pesquisa-ação denominada “Oficina dos Sonhos”, que contou com presença e participação direta dos adolescentes do PTPA que tiveram a (...) tarefa de pensar no local onde residem, como vivem e a perspectiva da transformação de modo lúdico e participativo. Assim, a oficina foi realizada pelo Observatório de Políticas Públicas para Adolescência, projeto de extensão da UERJ, e tornou-se relevante para compreender como a visão social e cultural do adolescente em diferentes contextos pode moldar a realidade dos sujeitos. Este estudo propõe, portanto, analisar a realidade do adolescente inserido na contradição do Estado capitalista, compreender limites, desafios e possibilidades de acesso ao primeiro emprego com condições dignas e tendo seus direitos garantidos, bem como a garantia à construção e continuação de projetos de vida. (shrink)

Presentation - Horizonte, v. 12, n. 35, jul./sept. 2014 - Dossier: Non-religious Spiritualities.

Corporeidade tem sido usada em situações diferentes, considerando que este termo se apresenta como um processo de totalidade do ser humano para além do corpo entendido como componente biológico. Assim, o objetivo geral é analisar as concepções epistemológicas deste conceito. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão narrativa a partir de livros e artigos, com textos publicados a partir de 2000, os quais fundamentaram este ensaio. Os resultados apresentam que o conceito de corporeidade possui análises provenientes da fenomenologia, do materialismo dialético e (...) do movimento pós-moderno, sendo a primeira, a mais recorrente. (shrink)

MASTHEAD Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, vol. 15, no. 48, Oct./Dec. 2017.

A presença do componente curricular Ensino Religioso – ER na escola, de modo especial na escola pública, é marcada pela controvérsia. O Brasil viveu sob o manto da confessionalidade, mesmo depois do decreto n. 119A, e a separação legislativo-jurídica entre Igreja e Estado não pôs fim ao problema. A partir dessa perspectiva, o objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre a configuração atual do Ensino Religioso na escola pública, a partir de breve referência inicial aos antecedentes históricos e aos aspectos filosóficos (...) deste processo, que permitiram essa situação, desde a implantação do regime republicano no país. Quer considerar o problema de o Ensino Religioso estar sempre marcado por um discurso conflitivo entre os pressupostos da laicidade e da confessionalidade. O itinerário foi norteado pela seguinte questão: como analisar as mudanças e alterações que fizeram com que este componente curricular passasse da área eclesiástica para a esfera pública? Será que o Ensino Religioso é um problema para a laicidade? A metodologia utilizada é a pesquisa bibliográfica, qualitativa e documental, através da análise de documentos constitucionais, leis de diretrizes e bases da educação, pareceres e resoluções que envolveram esse componente curricular, bem como discursos de juristas em diversas épocas. Ao se investigar este tema, percebe-se que a discussão sobre o Ensino Religioso, bem como a compreensão de sua presença na escola pública, envolve uma complexa discussão, que não pode desconhecer os aspectos históricos, filosóficos e jurídicos. (shrink)

Horizonte Expediente - v. 15, n. 46, abr./jun. 2017.

A “globalização” é um fenômeno desafiante. É um conceito que apresenta diversas significações e utilizações. Há certa imprecisão conceitual sobre a “globalização”, especialmente no campo teológico, encontrando-se outras categorias que também são utilizadas com a intenção de representá-la: “mundialização” e “internacionalização”. A complexidade dessas realidades faz surgir ainda conceitos como "globalidade” e “globalismo”. Como compreender esses fenômenos, suas dimensões e todas essas terminologias? E como alguns teólogos têm se apropriado dessa realidade? Este artigo discute e define esses diversos conceitos, amparando-se (...) em alguns autores das Ciências Sociais, e explicita e justifica a razão de se trabalhar com a categoria "Globalização” no campo teológico. Mas a intenção principal deste texto é verificar o impacto desse fenômeno e a reação a ele nas teologias da Libertação e do Pluralismo Religioso, especialmente diante da realidade da pobreza e do pluralismo religioso. A conclusão aponta, brevemente, para a articulação entre essas duas teologias de forma a dar outro enfoque à “globalização” e contribuir para a superação dos principais desafios contemporâneos gerados por ela. Palavras-chave: Globalização; Mundialização; Internacionalização; Globalismo; Teologia da libertação; Teologia do pluralismo religioso. ABSTRACT Globalization is a challenging phenomenon. The concept presents several meanings and uses. There is a certain conceptual vagueness about globalization, especially in the theological field, other categories being also used with the intention of representing it: mundialization and internationalization. The complexity of those realities brings about concepts such as globality and globalism. How can we understand those phenomena, their dimensions and all those terminologies? And how have some theologians appropriated that reality? This article discusses and defines those various concepts, with basis on some Social Science authors, besides making explicit and justifying the reason for working with globalization in the theological field. It aims mainly at verifying the impact of that phenomenon and the reaction to it in the theologies of Liberation and Religious Pluralism, especially in face of the reality of poverty and religious pluralism. The conclusion points out briefly the articulation between those two theologies so as to present another approach to globalization and to face the main contemporary challenges generated by it. Key words: Globalization; Mundialization; Internationalization; Globalism; Theology of Liberation; Theology of Religious Pluralism. (shrink)

Em sua obra República, Platão define a cidade ideal e, portanto, justa, como aquela construída de acordo com as diferentes características naturais de seus cidadãos. Na Callipolis, os seres humanos estariam divididos em categorias de acordo com suas características naturais e deveriam ocupar na polis diferentes postos, de acordo com tais categorias. A desigualdade natural é o paradigma da análise política, desde a Grécia clássica, permanecendo durante toda a Idade Média, até a modernidade, que introduz, sobretudo no pensamento contratualista/iluminista dos (...) séculos XVII e XVIII, a premissa de que todos os seres humanos devem ser, por natureza, considerados livres e iguais. Analisaremos a questão da justiça no pensamento político moderno, tendo em vista, sobretudo, os fundamentos dos princípios da igualdade e da liberdade. (shrink)

: In this paper I argue that there is a very important, though often neglected, dissimilarity between the two Gricean conceptions of ‘what is said’: the one presented in his William James Lectures and the one sketched in the ‘Retrospective Epilogue’ to his book Studies in the Way of Words. The main problem lies with the idea of speakers' commitment to what they say and how this is to be related to the conventional, or standard, meaning of the sentences uttered (...) in the act of saying. Since the later notion of ‘what is said’, or ‘dictiveness’, is claimed to be logically independent from ‘formality’ (roughly, conventional meaning), Grice seems to maintain that there are cases in which content that is not expressed by a sentence in a context may nevertheless count as what is said. I propose an account of what is said that brings together the two apparently irreconcilable approaches. The price to be paid for a Gricean, however, is to accept a duality of behaviour between (natural language counterparts of) logical constants and logical variables. (shrink)