Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-4ks9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-12T14:47:20.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biased Evaluative Descriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2023

SARA BERNSTEIN
SARA BERNSTEIN*
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this essay I identify a type of linguistic phenomenon new to feminist philosophy of language: biased evaluative descriptions. Biased evaluative descriptions are descriptions whose well-intended positive surface meanings are inflected with implicitly biased content. Biased evaluative descriptions are characterized by three main features: (1) they have roots in implicit bias or benevolent sexism, (2) their application is counterfactually unstable across dominant and subordinate social groups, and (3) they encode stereotypes. After giving several different kinds of examples of biased evaluative descriptions, I distinguish them from similar linguistic concepts, including backhanded compliments, slurs, insults, epithets, pejoratives, and dog whistles. I suggest that the traditional framework of Gricean implicature cannot account for biased evaluative descriptions. I discuss some challenges to the distinctiveness and evaluability of biased evaluative descriptions, including intersectional social identities. I conclude by discussing their social significance and moral status. Identifying biased evaluative descriptions is important for a variety of social contexts, from the very general and broad (political speeches) to the very particular and small (bias in academic hiring).

Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 2024 , pp. 295 - 312
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Thanks to Louise Antony, Ray Briggs, Bianca Cepollaro, Esa Díaz-León, Anne Eaton, Faeze Faezeli, Carolina Flores, Dan López de Sa, Daniel Nolan, Dee Payton, Michael Rea, Jennifer Saul, Adam Sennet, Georgette Sinkler, Devin Sprague Morse, Isidora Stojanovic, and several anonymous referees for excellent feedback on this essay. Thanks also to audiences at the Words Workshop, the Pacific APA, the University of Illinois- Chicago, the University of Barcelona, Notre Dame Gender Studies, Rutgers University, the University of St Andrews, and the Institut Jean Nicod for excellent questions. I owe gratitude to my feminist philosophy class at the University of Notre Dame for hashing out these ideas with me. Thanks also to the National Endowment for the Humanities: revisions on this essay were completed during my fellowship year.

References

Adichie, Chimamanda. (2013) Americanah. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Allen, Samantha. (2017) ‘Laverne Cox and the Politics of Transgender Beauty’. Daily Beast, February 16, 2017. https://www.thedailybeast.com/laverne-cox-and-the-politics-of-transgender-beauty.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Sara. (2020) ‘The Metaphysics of Intersectionality’. Philosophical Studies, 177, 321–35.10.1007/s11098-019-01394-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, Sara. (manuscript) ‘Countersocial Counterfactuals’.Google Scholar
Bingeman, Emily. (manuscript) ‘The Risks of Praise’.Google Scholar
Birch, Jonathan. (2016) ‘Academic letters of recommendation: a guide for the perplexed’. Facebook, December 7, 2016. https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.birch.75054/posts/10102039433690700?pnref=story.Google Scholar
Bolinger, Renée Jorgensen. (2017) ‘The Pragmatics of Slurs’. Noûs, 51, 439–62.10.1111/nous.12090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, article 8. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf.Google Scholar
Daly, Helen. (2018) ‘On Insults’. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 4, 510–24.10.1017/apa.2018.29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delston, Jill B. (2021) ‘The Ethics and Politics of Microaffirmations’. Philosophy of Management, 20, 411–29.10.1007/s40926-021-00169-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotson, Kristie. (2013) ‘How Is This Paper Philosophy?’ Comparative Philosophy, 3, 3–29.Google Scholar
Downs, Jim. (2019) ‘Queer Like Pete’. Slate, November 25, 2019. https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/pete-buttigieg-gay-archetype-best-little-boy.html.Google Scholar
Foy, Steven, and Ray, Rashawn. (2019) ‘Skin in the Game: Colorism and the Subtle Operation of Stereotypes in Men's College Basketball’. American Journal of Sociology, 125, 730–85.10.1086/707243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. (1983) ‘Oppression’. In The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Trumansburg: Crossing Press), 1–16.Google Scholar
Glick, Peter et al. (2000) ‘Beyond Prejudice as Simple Antipathy: Hostile and Benevolent Sexism across Cultures’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 763–75.10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.763CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glick, Peter, and Fiske, Susan T.. (1996) ‘The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexism’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 491–512.10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, Paul. (1989) ‘Logic and Conversation’. In Studies in the Way of Words (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 22–40. Grice's lecture was originally delivered 1967 and published in 1975.Google Scholar
Hideg, Ivona, and Lance Ferris, D.. (2016). ‘The Compassionate Sexist? How Benevolent Sexism Promotes and Undermines Gender Equality in the Workplace’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 706–27.10.1037/pspi0000072CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschberg, Julia Bell. (1985) “A Theory of Scalar Implicature (Natural Languages, Pragmatics, Inference” (PhD diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1985).Google Scholar
Hom, Christopher. (2010) ‘Pejoratives’. Philosophy Compass 5, 164–85.10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00274.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Abigail. (2010) ‘Do Jewish Lawyers Really Do It Better?’ Forward, September 28, 2010. https://forward.com/schmooze/131666/do-jewish-lawyers-really-do-it-better/.Google Scholar
Jorba, Marta, and Rodó-de-Zárate, Maria. (2019) ‘Beyond Mutual Constitution: The Properties Framework for Intersectionality Studies’. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 45, 175–200.10.1086/703499CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T, Rudman, Laurie A., Blair, Irene V., Carney, Dana R., Dasgupta, Nilanjana, Glaser, Jack, and Hardin, Curtis D.. (2009) ‘The Existence of Implicit Bias Is Beyond Reasonable Doubt: A Refutation of Ideological and Methodological Objections and Executive Summary of Ten Studies That No Manager Should Ignore’ Research in Organizational Behavior, 29, 39–69.10.1016/j.riob.2009.10.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maitra, Ishani. (2012) ‘Subordinating Speech’. In McGowan, Mary Kate and Maitra, Ishani (eds.), Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 94–120.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236282.003.0005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marques, Teresa, and García-Carpintero, Manuel. (2014) ‘Disagreement about Taste: Commonality Presuppositions and Coordination’. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 92, 701–23.10.1080/00048402.2014.922592CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGrath, James. (2019) ‘Not All Autistic People Are Good at Maths and Science—Despite the Stereotypes’. The Conversation, April 3, 2019. https://theconversation.com/not-all-autistic-people-are-good-at-maths-and-science-despite-the-stereotypes-114128.Google Scholar
Meyer, Meredith, Cimpian, Andrei, and Leslie, Sarah-Jane (2015). ‘Women Are Underrepresented in Fields Where Success Is Believed to Require Brilliance’. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, article 235. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NPR. (2007) ‘Political Experts Weigh in on Biden Gaffe’. NPR News, February 2, 2007. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7127782.Google Scholar
Popa-Wyatt, Mihaela, and Wyatt, Jeremy L.. (2018) ‘Slurs, Roles and Power’. Philosophical Studies, 175, 2879–2906.10.1007/s11098-017-0986-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rett, Jessica. (2020) ‘Manner Implicatures and How to Spot Them’. International Review of Pragmatics, 12, 44–79.10.1163/18773109-01201105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saul, Jennifer. (2002) ‘Speaker Meaning, What Is Said, and What Is Implicated’. Noûs, 36, 228–48.10.1111/1468-0068.00369CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiavenza, Matt. (2018) ‘Silicon Valley's Forgotten Minority’. New Republic, January 11, 2018. https://newrepublic.com/article/146587/silicon-valleys-forgotten-minority.Google Scholar
Schlenker, Philippe. (2012) ‘Maximize Presupposition and Gricean Reasoning’ Natural Language Semantics, 20, 391–429.10.1007/s11050-012-9085-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sennet, Adam, and Copp, David. (2015) ‘What Kind of a Mistake Is It to Use a Slur?’ Philosophical Studies, 172, 1079–1104.10.1007/s11098-014-0338-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, David. (2019) ‘How the Other Halves Live: Candidates’ Spouses Show Modern American Family’. The Guardian, December 28, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/democratic-candidates-spouses-partners-modern-american-family.Google Scholar
Trix, Frances, and Psenka, Carolyn. (2003) ‘Exploring the Color of Glass: Letters of Recommendation for Female and Male Medical Faculty’. Discourse & Society, 14, 191–220.10.1177/0957926503014002277CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, Robin. (2016) ‘Attributability, Accountability, and Implicit Bias’. In Brownstein, Michael and Saul, Jennifer (eds.), Implicit Bias and Philosophy, vol. 2, Moral Responsibility, Structural Injustice, and Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press), 62–89.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198766179.003.0004CrossRefGoogle Scholar