•  13
    Presupposing values
    Pragmatics and Cognition 30 (1): 217-221. 2023.
  •  71
    This paper offers a general model of the semantics of lexicalized social meanings, i.e. semiotic properties of certain expressions in a socio-political context. Examples include slurs, problematically charged expressions such as inner city, as well as terms such as mother, which also carry implicit ideological associations. Insofar as their linguistic properties are concerned, social meanings can be construed as context-structuring devices: without introducing specific at-issue contents, they ev…Read more
  •  71
    Slurs and Expressive Commitments
    Acta Analytica 36 (2): 263-290. 2020.
    Most accounts of the derogatory meaning of slurs are semantic. Recently, Nunberg proposed a purely pragmatic account offering a compelling picture of the relation between derogatory content and social context. Nunberg posits that the semantic content of slurs is identical to that of neutral counterparts, and that derogation is a result of the association of slur use with linguistic conventions of bigoted speakers. The mechanism responsible for it is a special kind of conversational implicature. …Read more
  •  77
    Practices of Slur Use
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 97 (1): 86-105. 2020.
    Given the apparent nondisplaceability and noncancellability of the derogatory content of slurs, it may appear puzzling that non-derogatory uses of slurs exist. Moreover, these uses seem to be in general available only to in-group speakers, thereby exhibiting a peculiar kind of context-sensitivity. In this paper the author argues that to understand non-derogatory uses we should consider slurs in terms of the kind of social practice their uses instantiate. A suitable theory of social practices has…Read more
  •  23
    Modalny realizm i nazwy własne raz jeszcze
    with Maja Kittel
    Diametros 17 96-101. 2008.
  •  10
  •  17
  • Nazwy własne - fakty i mity
    Filozofia Nauki 17 (2). 2009.
    The aim of the paper is to reveal and criticize some of the hidden assumptions of the discussion on the nature of proper names. Those assumptions work in favor of the New Theory of Reference (NTR), which in fact seems more plausible than it should, were the assumptions made explicit. Three theses, it is argued, are assumed with no proof by all sides of the proper names debate: (1) proper names refer to their objects in a different way than common names do; (2) proper names are rigid designators;…Read more
  •  16
    First Prize Essay, the XIIth IPO, Seoul 2004
    Dialogue and Universalism 15 (5-6): 136-138. 2005.
  •  30
    Superessentialism and Necessitarianism
    Polish Journal of Philosophy 5 (1): 79-95. 2011.
    The paper concerns mutual relations between two metaphysical positions: “superessentialism,” claiming that all properties of every object are essential, i.e.necessary, and “necessitarianism,” claiming that everything is necessary, i.e. there is only one possible world. The theories of Spinoza and Lewis serve as examples. In section I the two positions are characterized. In section II and III interpretations of Spinoza’s and Lewis’s metaphysics are presented, and it is explained to what extent th…Read more