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How to Justify the Harms of Offensive Humor
Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of historical, philosophical and religious studies.
2024 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Att rättfärdiga skadorna av stötande humor (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

In this essay I examine the ethics of offensive humor through the lens of the Benign Violation Theory, which posits that humor arises when something seems wrong (a violation) but also okay (benign). I argue that while offensive humor can cause harm by promoting stereotypes and disengaging compassion, ultimately the arguments for free speech justify allowing it, as restricting such speech could lead to a slippery slope of unjustified censorship. Instead of restriction, the better response is more speech and efforts to address the root causes inspiring offensive humor.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. , p. 14
Keywords [en]
Ethics, Humor, Benign Violation Theory, Stereotypes, Free speech, Democracy, Censorship
National Category
Philosophy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-226152OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-226152DiVA, id: diva2:1869644
Subject / course
Philosophy
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2024-06-13 Created: 2024-06-13 Last updated: 2024-06-13Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf