A collection of 41 posts
With its thousands of problem-solving, information-discarding, thought-terminating conventional categories, a language is a great collection of off-switches for the mind.
Iona Italia interviews linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield about why language is good for lawyers and bad for scientists.
We have lost the words that we could once call upon to justify diversity of thoughts, desires, viewpoints, and policy preferences, as opposed to a diversity of demographic groups.
We have power over words, not vice versa.
The obsessive policing of language in the name of progress relies on magical thinking.
The January 6th riot does make for a visually dramatic backdrop to an exploration of the fascistic strain in modern populist politics.
To understand the coherence and moral import of transgender rights claims, we must first define what it is that we mean by “transgender.”
Our choice of words affects the way we think. That’s why we spend so much time fighting over which terms to use, whether it’s “undocumented immigrants” versus “illegal aliens,” “foetuses” versus “unborn babies,” or “militants” versus “terrorists.” In recent years, the question of word choice has figured prominently
It’s true that hair is a definitive socially-constructed characteristic of femininity (and masculinity) in many cultures.
Even historians, who have many years to consider the object of their study, inhabit “the twilight of probability.” How can those journalists tasked with writing “history’s first draft” imagine that they know which way true “harm” lies?
The fierce onslaught she received has served as a wake-up call, even for those who have not been following the debate closely.
The silencing of a voice does not lead to discourse, in art or in politics.
Clear language engenders clear thought, and clear thought is the most important benefit of education.
Nineteen-Eighty Four, whose first publication took place 70 years ago today, is itself a sort of anti-novel, one that undermines its own dramatic tension in a way that might now be described as postmodern.
The real-life Tolkien, who loathed trite allegory, would have cringed.