Henning, Kompa und Nimtz: Die dunkle Seite der Sprache

In the organizer's words:

Language as a tool of power: How words can devalue, manipulate and marginalize - Tim Henning, Nikola Kompa and Christian Nimtz in the taz Talk at the Leipzig Book Fair.

Language has a dark side. It is not only used to communicate, but can also discriminate ("asylum seekers are criminals"), manipulate (mansplaining) or belittle ("OK Boomer"). If chosen correctly, misleading statements ("They're eating the cats") can be disseminated with apparent ease.

The taz Studio at the Leipzig Book Fair
Program overview
Where: Hall 5 | G500
Leipzig Book Fair

Registration is not required. As we have a very limited capacity on site, we kindly ask you to be at the venue early. The event will be streamed live on YouTube.
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Tim Henning, Nikola Kompa and Christian Nimtz take a philosophical look at these dark sides of language. They shed light on how hidden mechanisms in our communication enable stigmatization, lies or the spread of problematic assumptions - often without us noticing. They show how we can counteract these mechanisms and make debates about language more objective.

The dark side of language. How words exclude, devalue and manipulate - a taz Talk in the taz Studio at the Leipzig Book Fair with:

🐾 Christian Nimtz is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Bielefeld University. His research focuses on topics at the intersection of philosophy of language on the one hand and epistemology, metaphysics and meta-philosophy on the other.

🐾 Nikola Kompa is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Osnabrück. Her main areas of research are the philosophy of language, philosophy of cognition, epistemology and the theory of language and ideas in the 18th century.

🐾 Tim Henning is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He researches questions of moral philosophy, philosophy of language and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. He has been awarded the Wolfgang Stegmüller Prize of the Society for Analytic Philosophy for his research.

🐾 Nina Apin moderates this taz Talk and has been writing about cultural and social issues for the taz since 2005. From 2016 to 2021, she was head of the opinion section at taz.

The dark side of language - a book about the power of words: comprehensible, philosophically sound and highly topical. It will be published on 20.03.2025 by C.H.Beck.

Get involved:

Would you like to submit questions for this event in advance? Or give audience feedback after the talk? Then write to us! We look forward to receiving your email: taztalk@taz.de