Doxastic and Epistemic Sources of Offense for Slurring Terms.
Abstract
Existing analyses of slurs emphasize how linguistic mechanisms make slurs derogatory. I will argue that, in addition to linguistic mechanisms, there are overlooked doxastic and epistemic features of standard slurring utterances that can be sources of offense. Additionally, I argue that the doxastic feature that distinguishes slurring utterances from other negatively valenced utterances is fundamental to understanding slurring terms. Clinical Trial Registration: Not applicable.
Publication Title
Acta Analytica
Recommended Citation
Gray, D. M. (2024). Doxastic and Epistemic Sources of Offense for Slurring Terms.. Acta Analytica https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-024-00609-z
COinS
Comments
Slurring utterances are reasonably taken to be offensive. Philosophers and linguists have spent considerable time giving arguments as to what particular feature or mechanism of a slurring utterance acts as the source of offense. While virtually all accounts of slurs have claimed that the mechanism is linguistic,Footnote 1 I will argue that—in addition to whatever linguistic mechanisms derogateFootnote 2—there are doxastic and epistemic sources of offense. I will arrive at this point by showing that slurring utterances involve a kind of doxastic error and that this error is fundamental to understanding the category of slurs. This error also explains at least one of the sources of offense common to slurring utterances.Footnote 3 I take my arguments for a doxastic and epistemic source of offense, as well as the method I use to say what a slur is, to be original contributions to the literature on slurs. Additionally, in presenting this argument and allowing for multiple sources of offense, I am in opposition to ‘monistic’ accounts of slurs that claim that there is only a single source of offense. Most linguistic accounts of offense fall into this category. Jeshion (2013), Popa-Wyatt and Wyatt (2018), and Mandelbaum et al. (2024) are exceptions in acknowledging multiple sources of offense (but silent regarding non-linguistic sources).