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In the Autumn Term we are reading Democracy Despite Itself: Liberal Constitutionalism and Militant Democracy. As before, we meet at 10am on Wednesdays in Lorenzo鈥檚 office.

If you haven鈥檛 come along before the book group is very informal and super fun. It is mostly staff, with (usually) a couple of PhD students. Staff come from across the department and we have members from every research centre, so it really is a broad church. Expertise in the subject is absolutely not a prerequisite for coming. It鈥檚 a way to do philosophy together and get to know each other better. All welcome!

The book is available online in the library:

Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2025

Location: Social Sciences Building, S0.11

Schedule:

14:05-14:55

Speaker: Michelle Liu (Monash)

Title: Mental Imagery and Harmful Language*

14:55-15:05

Coffee Break

15:05-15:50

Q&A

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*Abstract:

Research on pernicious language tends to focus on harmful beliefs and associations transmitted by such language. In this paper, I explore the idea that pernicious language often transmits harmful mental imagery. Empirical studies suggest that mental imagery is a pervasive feature of language processing. Furthermore, mental imagery prompted by language can influence our memories and judgements in an insidious way. Focusing on language containing misinformation about witnessed events, as well as generics and metaphors about social groups, this paper argues for the importance of mental imagery for theorising harmful language and suggests ways to combat the imagistic harm.