PHIL 118
Meaning, Communication and Society Fall 2022 (also offered Spring 2023)
Division II Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity

The primary way we interact with others is through the use of language. We use language to communicate meanings in order to accomplish a variety of goals: to convey information, make requests, establish rules, utilize power, issue protests, and much more. We coordinate our lives through sounds from mouths, signs from hands, and squiggles on paper because somehow sounds, signs, and squiggles have meanings. This course is an investigation into how language is used to express meaning, and how such expression can have real interpersonal and societal impact. Using resources from philosophy and linguistics, we will study various ways in which literal and non-literal uses of language influence our social lives. Of particular interest will be how language can be used to establish, reinforce, and resist power relationships involving race and gender.