Speaker Series: Sam Berstler

“I Didn’t Do It: Very Implausible Denials and Social Unreality”

Abstract: When I make a very implausible denial, I deny phi-ing, in a context in which (1) before I speak, it is common knowledge that I phi-ed and (2) after I speak, it remains common knowledge that I phi-ed.  Very implausible denials ought to strike us as absurd.  And in some cases, they do.  But in other cases, they don’t.  Furthermore, in some of the non-absurd cases, the speaker, in making the very implausible denial, seems to gravely wrong her interlocutor.  Why?  Taking inspiration from Thomas Nagel (1998), I posit the existence of social unreality prohibitions.  These prohibitions, which are both salutary and sinister, regulate the information that may enter into joint processes like joint deliberation and conversation.  I then argue that non-absurd very implausible denials are not denials at all: they are speech acts that enact or impose, or purport to enact or impose, social unreality prohibitions.

Sam Berstler is the inaugural Desai Family Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer in the Princeton Philosophy Department. She works  on philosophy of language, moral theory and the nature of social interaction.