Experimental Philosophy of Language

Hansen, Nat

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935314.013.53

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The results obtained in these studies do not point in a uniform direction, but all of them cast doubt on the externalist orthodoxy: While speakers in many situations do use natural kind terms in ways that are consistent with externalism, in others they seem to apply them on the basis of observable properties, as traditional internalism would have it. However, these studies do not give us a clear and uniform understanding of when speakers rely more on deep structure, when on observable properties, and why (for discussion, see Hansen, 2015; Martí, 2015; Häggqvist & Wikforss, 2015; Cohnitz & Haukioja, 2020). Moreover, no published studies have looked at ordinary speakers’ reactions to the standard kinds of Twin Earth cases, which philosophers of language typically put most weight on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reports from Twin Earth: Both deep structure and appearance determine the reference of natural kind terms

2020

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Following the influential thought experiments by Hilary Putnam and others, philosophers of language have for the most part adopted semantic externalism concerning natural kind terms. In this article, we present results from three experiments on the reference of natural kind terms. Our results confirm some standard externalist assumptions, but are in conflict with others: Ordinary speakers take both appearance and underlying nature to be central in their categorization judgments. Moreover, our results indicate that speakers’ categorization judgments are gradual, and proportional to the degree of similarity between new samples and familiar, “standard” samples. These findings pose problems for traditional theories, both externalist and internalist.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…13 13 For an excellent overview of the massive critical discussion that followed Machery et al (2004), see Hansen (2015). …”

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confidence: 99%

Reports from Twin Earth: Both deep structure and appearance determine the reference of natural kind terms

2020

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“…In the last years, several authors have advocated the use of linguistic corpora to investigate issues in the philosophy of language (Bluhm, 2013(Bluhm, , 2016Hansen, 2015;Hansen & Chemla, 2015;Hansen et al, 2019;Caton, 2020;Hinton, 2020;Tallant & Andow, 2020). Although it is not the most widespread methodology, it has certain advantages that make it desirable over other options.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paving the road to hell: The Spanish word menas as a case study

Bordonaba-Plou¹,

Vidal

2021

Daimon

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Menas es un término que ha ganado notoriedad en la actual escena política española. Aunque el término tenía un uso neutro en su origen, ya que es un acrónimo de “menores extranjeros no acompañados”, recientemente ha evolucionado a un término con claras connotaciones negativas. Este artículo explora qué tipo de término es menasactualmente. Específicamente, examinaremos si menas es un slur o un TESNI, es decir, un término étnico/social neutro usado como insulto. Primero, señalamos las características más definitorias de ambos tipos de términos. Después, por medio de análisis sobre corpus lingüísticos, mostramos que menas exhibe las características más definitorias de los TESNI. Acabamos discutiendo la posible evolución del término, señalando que, aunque el término tiene los rasgos de los TESNI, existen dos posibles escenarios. Por un lado, el término puede conservar sus usos neutros y de este modo seguir siendo un TESNI. Por otro lado, los usos neutros pueden desaparecer y así el término acabar convir-tiéndose en un slur. “Menas” is a term that has attracted a great deal of attention on the political scene in Spain at present. Although the term had a neutral usage originally, being an acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors, it has recently evolved into a term with clear negative connotations. This article explores what kind of term menas is today. Specifically, we will examine whether “menas” is a slur or an ESTI, an ethnic/social term used as an insult. First, we point out the most defining characteristics of both types of terms. Then, using analyses on linguistic corpora, we show that “menas” exhibits the most defining characteristics of TESNI. We end by discussing the possible evolution of the term, pointing out that, although the term presents the features related to ESTIs, there are two possible scenarios. On the one hand, the term may retain its neutral uses and thus remain an ESTI. On the other hand, the neutral uses may disappear, and thus the term may become a slur.

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“…Insofar as that everyday capacity is reliable, the application of concepts to cases in philosophy should be reliable as well. 5 The prevailing program 4 For surveys of just a small sample of the quickly growing experimental literature, see Alexander (2012), Hansen (2015), Knobe (2012), and Pinillos (2016). 5 Some recent experimental work problematizes the idea that the everyday conceptual capacities are reliable when applied to certain philosophical thought experiments.…”

Section: Baz's Challenge To "The Prevailing Program"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Nobody would really talk that way!”: the critical project in contemporary ordinary language philosophy

Hansen

2018

Synthese

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This paper defends a challenge, inspired by arguments drawn from contemporary ordinary language philosophy and grounded in experimental data, to certain forms of standard philosophical practice. The challenge is inspired by contemporary philosophers who describe themselves as practicing "ordinary language philosophy". Contemporary ordinary language philosophy can be divided into constructive and critical approaches. The critical approach to contemporary ordinary language philosophy has been forcefully developed by Avner Baz, who attempts to show that a substantial chunk of contemporary philosophy is fundamentally misguided. I describe Baz's project and argue that while there is reason to be skeptical of its radical conclusion, it conveys an important truth about discontinuities between ordinary uses of philosophically significant expressions ("know", e.g.) and their use in philosophical thought experiments. I discuss some evidence from experimental psychology and behavioral economics indicating that there is a risk of overlooking important aspects of meaning or misinterpreting experimental results by focusing only on abstract experimental scenarios, rather than employing more diverse and more ecologically valid experimental designs. I conclude by presenting a revised version of the critical argument from ordinary language. Thanks to Emma Borg, Wesley Buckwalter, Kathryn Francis, members of the CCR summer seminar at the University of Reading, participants at the CCCOM Workshop on Communication and Understanding at the University of Stockholm, and three anonymous referees for very helpful comments on versions of this paper. Thanks to Robert Baron, Herb Clark, and Kristen Syrett for permission to reprint figures.

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Experimental Philosophy of Language

Cited by 14 publications

References 54 publications

Reports from Twin Earth: Both deep structure and appearance determine the reference of natural kind terms

Reports from Twin Earth: Both deep structure and appearance determine the reference of natural kind terms

Paving the road to hell: The Spanish word menas as a case study

“Nobody would really talk that way!”: the critical project in contemporary ordinary language philosophy

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