Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm

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Mary Kate McGowan (Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy, Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy, Wellesley College)

Just Words

On Speech and Hidden Harm

Mary Kate McGowan (Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy, Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy, Wellesley College)

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English

Oxford University Press
08 April 2021

Philosophy of language; Sociolinguistics; Philosophy; Ethics & moral philosophy; Social & political philosophy; Feminism & feminist theory

We all know that speech can be harmful. But what are these harms, and how exactly does the speech in question bring them about? Mary Kate McGowan identifies a previously overlooked mechanism by which speech constitutes, rather than merely causes, harm. She argues that speech constitutes harm when it enacts a norm that prescribes that harm. McGowan illustrates this theory by considering many categories of speech including sexist remarks, racist hate speech, pornography, verbal triggers for stereotype threat, micro-aggressions, political dog whistles, slam poetry, and even the hanging of posters. Just Words explores a variety of harms--such as oppression, subordination, discrimination, domination, harassment, and marginalization--and ways in which these harms can be remedied.

By: Mary Kate McGowan (Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy Wellesley College)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 14mm
Weight: 282g
ISBN: 9780192897398
ISBN 10: 019289739X
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 08 April 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1: Preliminaries 2: Conversational Exercitives 3: On Differences Between Standard and Conversational Exercitives 4: The General Phenomenon: Covert Exercitives 5: Speech and Oppression 6: On Pornography: Subordination and Silencing 7: Race, Speech, and Free Speech Law Conclusion

Mary Kate McGowan is the Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. She received her PhD from Princeton in 1996. She works in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of law, and feminism. She is the co-editor, with Ishani Maitra, of Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (Oxford 2009).

Reviews for Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm

The author's discussions are intricate, ingenious and sophisticated. Perhaps most impressively, for a book that blends jurisprudence, politics and philosophy of language, they are also lucid, unpretentious, and often utterly persuasive. * Rachel Fraser, Times Literary Supplement *