Next Tuesday (1^st  October) Derek Ball will give a talk on “Metasemantic Ethics”.

Abstract:  The idea that experts (especially scientific experts) play a privileged role in determining the meanings of our words and the contents of our concepts has become commonplace since the work of Hilary Putnam, Tyler Burge, and others in the 1970s.  But despite much discussion, this ‘division of linguistic labour’ raises important ethical issues that have been entirely ignored in the literature.  If I have the power to determine what your words mean, I can do so responsibly or irresponsibly, from good motivations or bad, justly or unjustly, with good or bad effects.  For example, it seems possible that experts engage in a conspiracy to fix meaning in a way that benefits themselves or harms others.  But exactly what is wrong with such a conspiracy?  What is wrong with attempts to use coercion or force to fix meaning?  Are there distinctive normative issues associated with determining the meaning of words that people use to think and talk about phenomena that play a deep role in their values and self-conceptions: for example, words related to personhood, justice and freedom, or to gender and race?  I develop a framework for answering these and other questions in metasemantic ethics.

As usual, the seminar will take place in Edgecliffe, room G03, 12-2 pm.