[Ads-l] cancel culture

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jul 31, 2020, at 10:26 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Bill Mullins wrote:
>> Earlier in Twitter -- Oct 28, 2016:
>> 
>> https://twitter.com/unicorninkk/status/792025338616418304
>> "I hate cancel culture until I want to set things on fire! "
> 
> Worthwhile topic, Fred. Great citation, Bill.
> I initiated a germane thread back in May 2019.
> 
> [Ads-l] Word/Phrase: cancel, cancel culture, cancellation culture
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2019-May/154643.html
> 
> The mailing list message included some tweets with the phrase: "You
> have been cancelled". The precise meaning was not always clear. The
> tweet citations begin on Nov 22 2008.
> 
> Dave Wilton initiated a pertinent thread in February 2020.
> 
> [Ads-l] Cancel culture, cancel (2018)
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2020-February/156597.html
> 
> John Baker mentioned the Mashable.com article dated Nov 18, 2017 which
> was referenced in a tweet.
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2020-February/156598.html
> 
> Dave Wilton presented a tweet together with a reply tweet that
> exhibited the desired sense on Feb 8, 2017.
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2020-February/156599.html
> https://twitter.com/DougieFresh818/status/829410105502400513
> https://twitter.com/chazzsplash/status/829410413091631105
> 
> The tweet found by Bill Mullins appears to be the earliest currently
> mentioned on this mailing list.
> 
> Garson
> 


And it’s certainly in the air at the moment...

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> 
> Yale Henry Koerner Center
> 
> Cracks in the pedestal: Cancel culture comes for Aristotle
> 
> Led by Laurence Horn
> Thursday, August 6
> 11:00 a.m. 
> 
> In her July 23 New York Times op-ed, "Should We Cancel Aristotle <http://click.message.yale.edu/?qs=ba10649880bbf6312728b0d34d1bb2cbc2b2973d6c606ed506428be997ac368d1d4e285967fb13304414670149ebe0d1fffd5eb90684d5eb>?" philosopher Agnes Callard defends two points concerning Aristotle and his legacy, which includes his repeated defenses of both “natural” slavery and the inferiority of women: (1) While we can plausibly apply the “pick-and-choose strategy” to other philosophers and thereby “set aside or ignore” their problematic remarks while “focusing attention on valuable ideas found elsewhere in their work,” Aristotle’s consistent promotion of his blindered conception of human dignity runs too deep for that strategy to succeed in this case. (2) We must nevertheless resist the temptation to “cancel” Aristotle, since the aspects of his speech that offend us related less to their content than to the messaging overlaid on it, which is essentially context- and culture-bound and tells us more about us than about him. Callard appeals not to the right to “free speech” (a politically loaded concept), but to our ability and willingness to speak and hear language literally, abstracting away from the messaging context.
> 
> I will offer some reflections on these claims, incorporating critical reactions to Callard’s arguments by other philosophers, including Shelly Kagan (Yale philosophy) and Susanne Bobzien, formerly a colleague at Yale and now a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford. Bobzien, who foreshadowed Callard’s points in the afterword to her 2011 compilation of Aristotle’s writings, initiated an illuminating Facebook thread on the topic that I’ll be sampling. I will add in my own thoughts (and visual aids) addressing the viability of the “pick-and-choose strategy,” or what we might call—in deference to our shut-down dining halls—the cafeteria critique.
> ...
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