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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp011g05ff64r
Title: Against Imprecision: Mapping Generics’ Truth-Evaluability and Their Roles in Stereotype-Perpetuation
Authors: Searle, Grace
Advisors: Leslie, Sarah-Jane
Department: Philosophy
Certificate Program: Linguistics Program
Class Year: 2020
Abstract: This thesis examines epistemologies of generic statements, how to evaluate their truth/falsity, and what implications varied (mis)understandings of them have within human networks. Generics (e.g. “Sharks attack swimmers”) attribute a way of being (a property) to a category of thing (a kind). Grave societal harms result when stereotypic generics made about human subgroups are echoed spuriously, as though true, when they are simply pernicious misgeneralizations (e.g. “Men are murderers”). I suggest generics are revisable.
URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp011g05ff64r
Access Restrictions: Walk-in Access. This thesis can only be viewed on computer terminals at the Mudd Manuscript Library.
Type of Material: Princeton University Senior Theses
Language: en
Appears in Collections:Philosophy, 1924-2023

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