Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Language in Bioethics: The Pragmatic View" with Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH

12:00pm - 1:00pm • Hybrid 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom)

2023-07-25 12:00:00 2023-07-25 13:00:00 America/New_York Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Language in Bioethics: The Pragmatic View" with Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH Language in Bioethics: The Pragmatic View Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology & Critical Care, Medical Ethics & Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine Associated Faculty, Anthropology, School of Arts and Sciences It's striking how rarely language is explicitly theorized in bioethical work given the centrality of events of language use to the concerns of the field. This talk will describe the dominant (though largely implicit) conception of language in bioethics: representationalism, or the view that the significance of language resides in its ability to refer to and predicate about things in the world. An alternative conception of language will then be presented: pragmatics, or the view that the significance of language resides in its ability to presuppose and revise the social statuses of interlocutors. Finally, the pragmatic view will be applied to empirical work from surgical clinics and intensive care units to (a) demonstrate its advantages over the representational view in understanding how clinicians, patients, and families wind up pursuing particular courses of treatment, and (b) reflect on the methods most often used to examine this process. To-go lunch provided for in-person attendees. Livestreaming available via Zoom. Hybrid 1402 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive (and virtual via Zoom) Penn Medical Ethics

Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology & Critical Care, Medical Ethics & Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine Associated Faculty, Anthropology, School of Arts and Sciences

It's striking how rarely language is explicitly theorized in bioethical work given the centrality of events of language use to the concerns of the field. This talk will describe the dominant (though largely implicit) conception of language in bioethics: representationalism, or the view that the significance of language resides in its ability to refer to and predicate about things in the world. An alternative conception of language will then be presented: pragmatics, or the view that the significance of language resides in its ability to presuppose and revise the social statuses of interlocutors. Finally, the pragmatic view will be applied to empirical work from surgical clinics and intensive care units to (a) demonstrate its advantages over the representational view in understanding how clinicians, patients, and families wind up pursuing particular courses of treatment, and (b) reflect on the methods most often used to examine this process.