Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of InsultsOxford University Press, 7 déc. 2007 - 304 pages "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." This schoolyard rhyme projects an invulnerability to verbal insults that sounds good but rings false. Indeed, the need for such a verse belies its own claims. For most of us, feeling insulted is a distressing-and distressingly common-experience. In Sticks and Stones, philosopher Jerome Neu probes the nature, purpose, and effects of insults, exploring how and why they humiliate, embarrass, infuriate, and wound us so deeply. What kind of injury is an insult? Is it determined by the insulter or the insulted? What does it reveal about the character of both parties as well as the character of society and its conventions? What role does insult play in social and legal life? When is telling the truth an insult? Neu draws upon a wealth of examples and anecdotes-as well as a range of views from Aristotle and Oliver Wendell Holmes to Oscar Wilde, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn, and many others-to provide surprising answers to these questions. He shows that what we find insulting can reveal much about our ideas of character, honor, gender, the nature of speech acts, and social and legal conventions. He considers how insults, both intentional and unintentional, make themselves felt-in play, Freudian slips, insult humor, rituals, blasphemy, libel, slander, and hate speech. And he investigates the insult's extraordinary power, why it can so quickly destabilize our sense of self and threaten our moral identity, the very center of our self-respect and self-esteem. Entertaining, humorous, and deeply insightful, Sticks and Stones unpacks the fascinating dynamics of a phenomenon more often painfully experienced than clearly understood. |
Table des matières
3 | |
Honor Slaps and Swords | 33 |
Insult in Play and Ritual | 57 |
Assault from the Rear | 83 |
The Language of Abuse | 113 |
Insult in the Law Fighting Words Obscenity and Hate Speech | 137 |
Insult in the Law Libel and Slander | 171 |
Insult in the Law Blasphemy | 193 |
Insult Humor | 215 |
To Understand All Is to Forgive AllOr Is It? | 243 |
271 | |
281 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
Abrahams abuse aggression anger assault attack attitudes audience behavior beliefs blasphemy briga Chaplinsky constitutional context conventional course Court defamation depend discussion Dollard dominance dozens duel emotions Erving Goffman etiquette excuse expectations expression fact fantasy feeling insulted fighting words forgiveness freedom of speech Freud fuck harm hate speech Holocaust deniers homosexual honor humiliation humor individual injury insult rituals intention involved J. L. Austin jokes Lady Chatterley’s Lover language least libel male matriarchy matter mean moral mother Muslim nigger norms notion object obscene offense one’s particular performative utterances perhaps person physical play pornography protection provocation punishment racial reasonable relation religion resentment respect response ridicule ritual insults role satire sexual shame simply slap social society someone sometimes sort speech codes standards status teasing things thought tion truth typically understanding utterance verbal victim violence women wrong