Philosophers often treat racist and sexist slurs as a special sort of puzzle. What is the difference between a slur and its correlates? In attempting to answer this question, a second distinction has been overlooked: that between slurs and insults. What makes a term count as a slur? This is not an unnecessary taxonomical question as long as ableist terms such as ‘moron’ are dismissed as mere insults. Attempts to resolve the insult/slur distinction by considering the communicative content of slurs are not promising. A better solution is offered by speech act theory, and this paper develops a novel way to describe ordinary slurring utterances as oppressive speech acts. This can both explain the difference between slurs and insults, and challenge the dismissal of ableist terms.

哲学家经常将种族主义和性别歧视视为一种特殊的困惑。slur及其关联之间有什么区别？在试图回答这个问题时，第二个区别被忽略了：在侮辱和侮辱之间。是什么使一个词算得上是诽谤？只要诸如“白痴”之类的能力主义名词被视为侮辱，这不是不必要的分类学问题。通过考虑浆液的通信内容来解决侮辱/浆液区别的尝试是没有希望的。言语行为理论提供了一种更好的解决方案，本文提出了一种新颖的方式来将普通的口语表达描述为压迫性言语行为。这既可以解释侮辱和侮辱之间的区别，也可以挑战对弱势主义者的贬低。