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Jonathan Wolff, How Propaganda Works, Analysis, Volume 76, Issue 4, October 2016, Pages 558–560, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anw046
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Jason Stanley, best known for his work in philosophy of language, seeks to explain ‘how propaganda works’, as well as to show why it is that propaganda is a threat to democracy. In addition, he argues that inequality, whether justified or not in distributive terms, is problematic in that it will tend to generate what he calls ‘flawed ideologies’ which again are a threat to democracy. These are clearly topics of great importance, and it is very welcome to see a philosopher of language of Stanley’s prominence giving such attention to political philosophy. Here, he self-consciously follows the lead of a group of primarily feminist philosophers, such as Rae Langton, Sally Haslanger, Jennifer Hornsby and Miranda Fricker in using arguments and analysis from epistemology and philosophy of language to illuminate issues connected to the political use and misuse of speech. The book is rich in its sources, also drawing on the history of political philosophy and sociology, contemporary social psychology and the writings of African-American social and political philosophers such as Martin Robison Delany and W.E.B. Du Bois.
