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
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks
Assessment
- 2% Coursework 1: Reading Response Questions - series of short questions about the key readings.
- 38% Coursework 2: Seminar and lecture reflection - A series of short (500 words) reflections on your experiences during the seminars and lectures, and how they relate to the content covered.
- 60% Coursework 3: 3,000 words essay
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:
- understand and demonstrate a clear grasp of the main positions in the philosophical debates covered by the module.
Intellectual skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Identify the underlying issues in the debates discussed.
- Analyse the structure of complex and controversial problems, with an understanding of major strategies of reasoning designed to solve such problems.
- Read carefully and interpret texts drawn from a variety of sources, with sensitivity to context.
- Recognise and judge for yourself the strengths and weaknesses of arguments on both sides of each philosophical issue.
Practical Skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Identify textually-based arguments and subject their structure and implications to rigorous assessment.
- Understand the relevant specialist philosophical terminology and be able to use it properly.
- Review unfamiliar ideas with an open mind and a willingness to change one’s mind when appropriate.
Transferable skills
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Express views on philosophical issues clearly and concisely in writing.
- Participate effectively and appropriately in constructive debate on relevant issues.
- Work autonomously and manage your own work to time limits.
- Marshal a complex body of information, construct cogent arguments in the evaluation of this material, and present a clear and well-structured assessment of relevant considerations.
- Think creatively, self-critically and independently about new and unfamiliar problems.