Cattedra Rotelli

Speech Acts and the Accommodation of Injustice – The Power of Words, Language and Social Justice

19–23 March 2018
 

The second edition of the Rotelli Lectures at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University welcomed Rae Helen Langton, philosopher and Professor at the University of Cambridge, for a series of five lectures entitled Speech Acts and the Accommodation of Injustice.

Exploring the relationship between language, power and discrimination, Langton examined the role of words in shaping social norms, investigating how speech acts can contribute to legitimising inequality and injustice, while also becoming instruments of resistance and social change.

The five lectures focused on the social power of language, understood not merely as a means of communication but as a form of action capable of influencing behaviour, conferring authority and reshaping the implicit rules governing social interactions.

Particular attention was devoted to hate speech and the mechanisms through which discriminatory expressions can acquire authority and contribute to the normalisation of inequality. From this perspective, Langton explored the concept of accommodation, examining how assumptions and statements can become accepted within a conversational context, even without explicit endorsement, thereby affecting shared norms and expectations.

The lectures also investigated how speech acts can establish new norms, the role of informative presuppositions in indirectly conveying information, and the effects of accommodation, including its retroactive implications.

The final part of the series addressed the possibility of challenging discriminatory language through counter-speech, exploring strategies of resistance and blocking that can interrupt or limit the effectiveness of subordinating speech acts.

Bringing together philosophy of language, ethics and political philosophy, the lectures demonstrated how words do more than describe social reality: they can actively shape it, either reinforcing existing power structures or challenging them.

Professor Langton will hold a course entitled Speech Acts and the Accommodation of Injustice.

The five lessons that make up the course will be held from March 19, 2018 to March 23, 2018 between 14:00 and 17:00 in the Newton classroom (DIBIT 1).

• Monday 19 march 2018 – 14:00-17:00

Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – The authority of hate speech

Discussant: Claudia Bianchi (CRESA, UniSR); Roberto Mordacci (IRCECP – CeSEP, UniSR)

General discussion

• Tuesday 20 march 2018 – 14:00-17:00

Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – How to build a norm from a speech act

Discussant: Francesca De Vecchi (PERSONA – gender, UniSR); Martina Trombin (UniSR)

General discussion

• Wednesday 21 march 2018 – 14:00-17:00

Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – Informative presupposition as back-door testimony

Discussant: Raffaele Ariano (CRISI, UniSR); Bianca Cepollaro (UniSR)

General discussion

• Thursday 22 march 2018 – 14:00-17:00

Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – Accommodation and retroactive force

Discussant: Laura Caponetto (UniSR); Nicole Miglio (UniSR)

General discussion

• Fraiday 23 march 2018 – 14:00-17:00

Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – Blocking as counter-speech

Discussant: Marina Sbisà (gender – Trieste); Alice Giordano (DIAPOREIN, UniSR)

General discussion

Not only words: seminars to prepare lessons for the Cattedra Rotelli

The philosophical questions explored throughout the lecture series are further developed in Linguaggio d'odio e autorità. Lezioni milanesi per la Cattedra Rotelli (Mimesis, 2020), which brings together the central themes of the lectures alongside critical contributions.