Biography

My doctoral research examined a method of advancing social justice that has gained traction in both philosophy and activism: advancing social justice by changing language. For instance by banning derogatory terms, changing word-meanings, or coming up with new terminology. In my dissertation, “Corruptible Words: Essays on Social Progress and Linguistic Change”, I caution against efforts to change language before changing social practices. My thesis draws from a “use-theory of meaning”, according to which the meanings of our words come not from how they are defined or what they refer to, but from how they are used by a linguistic community. “Sorry” although defined as an apology-expressing term, is used in ways that go beyond its definition. In English, it is also used to ask people to move aside when they are in the way, or to express remorse (“I’m sorry that happened to you”). Stable patterns of use take the form of unwritten rules which encode the culture and practice of a community into language. Such rules arise as a result of our local practices and beliefs (our “forms of life”). These practices and beliefs give rise to certain “expressive needs”, needs to use words to navigate them. Applying this view of meaning to the suggestion that we need to change language to advance social justice, the following question arises: What happens if you take problematic words away, by tabooing them, for instance, while the practices that gave rise to them remain unchanged? My doctoral research argued that generating strong linguistic norms, norms which dictate how words can or cannot be used, without changing social practices and beliefs, runs a strong risk of driving a community’s expressive needs elsewhere, risking the concealment of problematic practices and beliefs. In response, my doctoral research has developed a novel account of the role language can play in advancing social change. By identifying patterns of word-use and investigating the practices and beliefs which give rise to these uses, words become a rich resource of information. Words mark where and how, in our social practices and beliefs, reform is required. Language, my doctoral research argues, is not a shortcut to social change, but an important source of information.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Philosophy 2021
University of Amsterdam Philosophy 2020