85 - Ernest Lepore: Linguistic Conventions, Slurs, and Philosophy of Language

Ernest Lepore is a Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Though Ernie is best known for his work in the philosophy of language, he has also published on philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. Though Robinson and Ernie largely discuss the former, their conversation begins with a bevy of wonderful stories from the profession, as Ernie worked and studied with many of the greatest thinkers—and characters—of twentieth century philosophy, including Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, Michael Dummett, and W.V.O. Quine. They then turn to some quite general problems in the philosophy language, discussion the relationship between language and thought, meta-linguistic negotiation, and conventions before going through the main arc of his book on slurs jointly authored with Una Stojnic of Princeton University. Though Ernie is the author of too many books and articles to list within the confines of this description, a recent book mentioned many times in the conversation is Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language (Oxford University Press, 2015), which Ernie cowrote with Mathew Stone, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers. OUTLINE 00:00 IN THIS EPISODE 00:38 Introduction 05:33 Ernie’s Interest in the Philosophy of Language 14:17 Working with Ed Gettier, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, and Michael Dummett 30:44 Language, Thought, and Convention 44:44 What is Meta-Linguistic Negotiation? 51:53 What is a Slur? 01:04:10 Philosophical Accounts of Slurs 01:13:50 Pejorative Content Accounts of Slurs 01:21:38 Non-Content Accounts of Slurs 01:30:52 A New Theory of Slurs Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.