How Slurs Harm and When They Don't

How do slurs dehumanize? Can they ever be used without offending their victims? Despite the significant body of work generated by linguists and philosophers over the last 20 years, there is still no agreement on how exactly slurs work and what accounts for their unique linguistic features. This talk reviews the main semantic, pragmatic, and essentialist theories of slurs, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Michael Schidlowsky works at Google and teaches computer science at NYU. He speaks about technology and leading more meaningful lives.

More about Michael: http://michaelschidlowsky.com/