“Two Varieties of Appropriation and the Pragmatic Theory of Slurs” By Ben Lennertz (Western Kentucky, Philosophy) Date: Wednesday, 3rd January, 2018 Time: 1500–1700 Place: H-232 Abstract: Most theorists accept that slurs are derogatory and their use causes warranted offense. However, there are situations in which uses of slurs are neither derogatory nor offensive. The process that allows for this is called appropriation or reclamation. There are two sorts of appropriation – language-wide appropriation, where any speaker of the language can […]

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Date:  Friday 2nd February, 2018 Time: 1100-1230 Place: H-232 Abstract: This talk addresses the question: how does memory help us learn? I start by re-thinking the epistemic problem that memory systems solve in light of memory successes and failures in humans, rodents, and artificial systems. Rather than merely functioning to store information or to preserve justification, I argue that the core function of any memory system […]

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