how words can harm crash course philosophy #28 reddit

See more

What are dirty words?

Dirty words are scatological, blue, coarse. They refer to things like body parts, bodily functions, and sexual acts. You probably don’t want to use these words in polite company, but if they do offend people, it’s because they offend their sensibilities, and not, say, their ideas about themselves or their identity.

Who said hate speech should be punished in the United States?

Now with this concept in mind, let’s consider a theory about how certain words cause harm, posed by American lawyer Charles R. Lawrence III. Lawrence argues that hate speech should be legally punishable in the United States, just as it is in some other countries.

What is hate speech?

In contrast, hate speech consists of words that are directed at a member of a group. And they’re used specifically because of that person’s membership in that group. These groups are generally based on something that’s key to a person’s identity – like race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

How can philosophy help us?

The philosophy of language can help us bring scary, powerful words out into the open, and figure out why they’re scary and powerful. And then, with reasoned arguments, we can understand and explain how the language that we use can inflict harm on others. Obviously, deliberately using words to harm is awful.

What does "philosophy" mean in Greek?

But when I say: “ 'Philosophy’ is a Greek word meaning ‘love of wisdom, ’ ” I’m mentioning the word, or talking about it. The use/mention distinction is helpful when we talk about sensitive, or taboo words, because, we have to use them in order to talk about them. And there are actually many kinds of taboo words.

Can sarcastic text be read without the help of social cues?

So a sarcastic text, if read without the help of social cues like tone of voice or body language, can end up creating miscommunication. But when it comes to the injuries caused by language, the greater concern for us here is words that are deliberately chosen to cause harm.