The Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language

This Handbook represents a collective exploration of the emerging field of applied philosophy of language. The volume covers a broad range of areas where philosophy engages with linguistic aspects of our social world, including such hot topics as dehumanizing speech, dogwhistles, taboo language, pornography, appropriation, implicit bias, speech acts, and the ethics of communication. An international line-up of contributors adopt a variety of approaches and methods in their investigation of these linguistic phenomena, drawing on linguistics and the human and social sciences as well as on different philosophical subdisciplines. The aim is to map out fruitful areas of research and to stimulate discussion with thought-provoking essays by leading and emerging philosophers.

1 - Introduction
2 - Amelioration as Course Correction
3 - A world where many worlds fit
4 - Silencing and Assertion: An Account of their Conversational Dynamic
5 - The Pragmatics of Technologically Mediated Online Speech: Don’t @ Me!
6 - The Truth About Slurs
7 - Slurring Words
8 - On Passive Aggression
9 - Taboo Word Research: Problems from the Past, Plans for the Future
10 - Speech-Act Theory in Feminist Thought
11 - Pornography as Oppressive Speech
12 - Pronouns and Gender
13 - How to Do Things with Gendered Words
14 - Beyond Pronouns: Gender Visibility and Neutrality across Languages
15 - Privacy, Critical Definition and Racial Justice
16 - Gender-neutrality and family leave policies
17 - In Praise of Spoken Philosophy
18 - Boxed Ears and Swiveling Fists: American Sign Language, Audism, and Power
19 - Resistance and Reclamation: Notorious Thugs
20 - Public Protest and Silencing
21 - The Contents of Maps
22 - Map Semantics and the Geography of Meaning
23 - The Semantics of Iconography and Code Words
24 - Visual and Linguistic Dogwhistles
25 - AI with Alien Content and Alien Metasemantics H
26 - Semantic Change in the Language of Technology
27 - On Retweeting
28 - Ideology and Intersectionality
29 - Shakespeare's Proper Names
30 - Art and Language

Luvell Anderson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Faculty in African American Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at Syracuse University. Before coming to Syracuse, he was an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Memphis and Alain Locke Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University. His research lies principally in Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Humor, and Philosophy of Race. He has published articles on the semantics of racial slurs and racist humor, and is co-editor of the Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race (Routledge Press). Professor Anderson is currently working on a book, The Ethics of Racial Humor, which explores themes of race, humor, and the connection between ethics and aesthetics. Ernie Lepore is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has authored numerous books and papers in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, including recently Imagination and Convention (with Matthew Stone, OUP, 2015), and Liberating Content (2016) with Herman Cappelen. He is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language (with Una Stojnic, 2024) and of the series Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language, with David Sosa.