Non-Ideal Foundations of Language

Front matter

Rae eae

Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy

Jessica Keiser

PART II Non-ideal foundations

5 Non-ideal foundations of language 6 Non-ideal metasemantics vi Contents

Index 186

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m very grateful to the many friends and colleagues whose generous feedback contributed to the development of the work presented here. Zoltan Szabo’s conscientious supervision during my time in graduate school at Yale helped me to synthesize the ideas that eventually grew into this book. Jason Stanley helped to steer my research towards social/political philosophy of language, thereby renewing my interest both in my own work and in the field as a whole. Robbie Williams guided me throughout the process of writing this book, and his tireless ability to discuss philosophical ideas enabled me to work through various problems. For written feedback, Im especially thankful to Thomas Brouwer and Indrek Reiland, who each read a draft of the entire manuscript and provided invaluable feedback. I also received incredibly generous and helpful feedback on portions of the book from Luvell Anderson, Liz Camp, Ellen Clarke, Justin D’Ambrosio, Ed Elliot, Josh Habgood-Coote, Samia Hesni, Jess Isserow, Michelle Liu, Heather Logue, Rachel McKinney, Andy Peet, Kate Ritchie, Rich Rowland, Léa Salje, Rob Stainton, Helen Steward, and Eric Swanson. Thanks also to participants at the Linguistic Conventions workshop, the Summer Language Online Workshop, the Fall Language Online Workshop, and the Iceland Reference Workshop, as well as to audiences at the Arché Mind and Language Seminar, the Edinburgh Philosophy Visiting Speaker Series, the Hertfordshire Research Seminar, and the London School of Economics Popper Seminar.

viii Acknowledgments

Writing a book is hard, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of family and friends. My writing support group—especially Andy Peet, Thomas Brouwer, Haixin Dang, Marina Baldissera Pacchetti, and Rich Rowland—provided encouragement and a sense of community while I was trying to write in isolation during the pandemic. Helen Steward’s company during long walks on the Ilkley moor between writing sessions kept me sane and grounded. I received a lot of support from my friends and colleagues at Leeds, where I won the lottery in terms of department collegiality. Most importantly, Im grateful for the support of my partner Xavier, who has been there with me through all the ups and downs, my friend Sigma, who always understands, and my parents, who believe in my ability to do hard things.