Teresa Marques // How can philosophy of language help us navigate the news cycle?”

CEPS SEMINAR SERIES IN ETHICS AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Teresa Marques (Universitat de Barcelona), “How can philosophy of language help us navigate the news cycle?”

In this paper, I try to answer the above question, and another question that it presupposes: can philosophy of language help us navigate the political news cycle? A reader can be sceptical of a positive answer to the latter question; after all, citizens, political theorists, and journalists seem to be capable of following current politics and its coverage in the news, and there is no reason to think that philosophy of language should be capable of helping people make sense and respond to the news. I will illustrate the application of philosophy of language to three contrasting strategies of political propaganda: dogwhistles, meaning perversions, and bald-faced lies. I hope that these help us see that philosophy of language can be a good tool in diagnosing demagoguery, and in resisting it.

The Seminar Series in Ethics and Political Philosophy is a research oriented initiative hosted by the Center for Ethics, Politics, and Society at the University of Minho, whose aim is to discuss works in progress of both established and younger scholars working in the fields of ethics, social and political philosophy, political and social theory. The seminars are open to everyone, but pre-registration is required.

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