Arguing About “COVID”: Metalinguistic Arguments on What Counts as a “COVID-19 Death”

Marcin Lewiński; Pedro Abreu

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-91017-4_2

Arguing About “COVID”: Metalinguistic Arguments on What Counts as a “COVID-19 Death”

Marcin Lewiński, Pedro Abreu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

52 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this contribution, we explore the plausibility and consequences of treating arguments over what counts as a COVID-19 death as metalinguistic arguments. While unquestionably related to the epidemiological and public health issues, these arguments are also arguments about how a term should be used. As such, they touch upon some of the foundational issues in meta-semantics, discussed in the recent literature on metalinguistic negotiations, conceptual ethics, and conceptual engineering. Against this background, we study official statements (of WHO, governments) and media reports to critically reconstruct the metalinguistic elements of the dispute over what a COVID-19 death is. We analyze in particular how epistemic and practical reasons are intertwined in nuanced and complex ways to produce an interesting type of metalinguistic interventions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The pandemic of argumentation
Editors	Steve Oswald, Marcin Lewiński, Sara Greco, Serena Villata
Place of Publication	Cham
Publisher	Springer
Chapter	2
Pages	17-41
Number of pages	25
Volume	43
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-91017-4
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-91016-7, 978-3-030-91019-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91017-4_2
Publication status	Published - 2022

Publication series

Name	Argumentation Library
Volume	43
ISSN (Print)	1566-7650
ISSN (Electronic)	2215-1907

Keywords

Argumentation theory
Conceptual engineering
COVID-19 death
Declarative speech acts
Definitions
ICD
Metalinguistic negotiation
Practical arguments

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/978-3-030-91017-4_2Licence: CC BY

Arguing About “COVID”Final published version, 370 KBLicence: CC BY

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91017-4Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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Arguing About “COVID”: Metalinguistic Arguments on What Counts as a “COVID-19 Death”. / Lewiński, Marcin ; Abreu, Pedro.
The pandemic of argumentation. ed. / Steve Oswald; Marcin Lewiński; Sara Greco; Serena Villata. Vol. 43 Cham: Springer, 2022. p. 17-41 (Argumentation Library; Vol. 43).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

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Arguing About “COVID”: Metalinguistic Arguments on What Counts as a “COVID-19 Death”

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

UN SDGs

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