What makes a word bad? On the one hand, slurs and other derogatory language appear to be meaningful - different slurs can seem to refer to different groups, for example. On the other hand, slurs can seem to be just an arbitrary tool for insulting or enabling harm. How is the meaning of a slur related to its practical uses?

• Introduction


• 1: Luvell Anderson: Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation


• 2: Elisabeth Camp: A Dual Act Analysis of Slurs


• 3: Kent Bach: Loaded Words: On the Semantics and Pragmatics of Slurs


• 4: Robin Jeshion: Slurs, Dehumanization, and the Expression of Contempt


• 5: Christopher Hom and Robert May: Pejoratives as Fiction


• 6: Ernie Lepore and Matthew Stone: Pejorative Tone


• 7: Mark Richard: How do Slurs Mean?


• 8: Geoffrey Pullum: Slurs and Obscenities: Lexicography, Semantics, and Philosophy


• 9: Laurence Horn: Nice Words for Nasty Things: Taboo and its Discontents

David Sosa is Temple Centennial Professor in the Humanities at UT Austin. He has been at Austin since 1997, after spending two years on a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Before that, he completed his PhD at Princeton. Sosa serves as editor of the journal Analytic Philosophy, and he is co-editor of Philosophy of Language (Oxford, 6th edition), Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology (Wiley/Blackwell), and Analytic Philosophy: A Companion (Wiley/Blackwell).