Dirty Talk: Feminist Philosophy of Language

Code School Level Credits Semesters
PHIL3036 Philosophy 3 20 Autumn UK
Code
PHIL3036
School
Philosophy
Level
3
Credits
20
Semesters
Autumn UK

Summary

​​In society we do things with words. We can use language to lie, to praise, to convince, and to insult. This course will consider the ethical and political ramifications of speech and language. We will use methods from the philosophy of language to investigate these issues. Representative topics include; how we should define and use certain terms (For example: ‘sex’, ‘gender’, ‘woman’, ‘disability’, ‘race’, ‘class’, ‘queer’), accounts of what it is to lie, accounts of the social effects of language (for example: slurs, dogwhistles and propaganda), how terms can be 'reclaimed', the harms of speech and how to balance those with the right to speech, silencing, epistemic injustice.

Target Students

Available for third year single honours and joint honours Philosophy students. Also available to Liberal Arts students in their final year who have completed either PHIL1012 or PHIL1013. Also available for exchange students.

Classes

Assessment

Assessed by end of autumn semester

Educational Aims

This module aims to give students a comprehensive overview of the debates in feminist philosophy of language, and to empower students to construct critical responses to these problems.

Learning Outcomes

​​Knowledge and Understanding
By the end of this module you should be able to:

Intellectual skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:

​Practical Skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:

​Transferable skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:

Conveners

View in Curriculum Catalogue
Last updated 07/01/2025.