The Philosophy of Linguistic Interventions (POLI)

• Applicant: Dr. Steffen Koch
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533861171

Linguistic interventions are active attempts at changing our linguistic practices - to change the meanings and usage of gender terms like "woman", to stop using expressions like "fake news", or to introduce new terms like "social distancing". Linguistic interventions are increasingly popular in both public discourse as well as philosophical work, where they can be found in discussions of Carnapian explication, verbal disputes, generic speech, conceptual engineering and metalinguistic negotiations, among others. Linguistic interveners typically assume that their endeavors potentially have significant cognitive and practical benefits, for example, that they enable speakers to think and communicate propositions they could not have thought or said prior to the interventions. However, as of yet, the actual cognitive effects of linguistic interventions remain underexplored. The Philosophy of Linguistic Interventions (POLI) project investigates the empirical underpinnings of and the constraints on linguistic interventions. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the empirical foundations of linguistic interventions with an emphasis on four carefully chosen strands of empirical research: (a) Neo-Whorfian investigations of linguistic relativity; (b) psycholinguistic investigations of nameability effects; © psychological research on word-learning and processing; and (d) psychological research on stereotypical inferences. The POLI project will assess these strands of research, transfer their main findings to the context of linguistic interventions and spell out the methodological consequences for philosophy insofar as it is concerned with linguistic interventions. In doing so, the POLI project seeks to (i) develop a comprehensive empirically informed account of the predictable cognitive effects of linguistic interventions, (ii) to use this account to assess the role of linguistic interventions in philosophical methodology, and (iii) to derive a toolkit, i.e., a set of concrete guidelines, for would-be linguistic interveners.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position