Only in the rather hazy sense in which I do for most other ethical questions. It goes something like this: if X wears a dress and Y laughs at X for it, X gets to feel insulted, belittled and maybe threatened, Y gets the satisfaction of laughing at someone they find risible, and anyone else around maybe gets encouraged to think ill of either X or Y. X’s utility loss here looks a lot bigger than Y’s utility gain. (From, e.g., my experiences of laughing at other people and being laughed at, and what I’ve heard of other people’s.)
That’s a universal argument against all humor.
The mere fact of not laughing at someone wearing a dress doesn’t make a person a humorless corporate drone
True, however, it goes a good way in that direction and applying your logic consistently certainly would.
It most certainly isn’t a universal argument against all humour. It’s an argument against laughing at people (in case it isn’t clear, btw, what’s mostly in view here is laughing at people in their presence) but that’s very far from being all humour.
it goes a good way in that direction
I cannot recall a single instance in which I, or anyone else known to me, formed a bad opinion of a corporate representative because they didn’t laugh at someone else. Still less, of course, specifically because they didn’t laugh at someone for wearing a dress.
It most certainly isn’t a universal argument against all humour. It’s an argument against laughing at people (in case it isn’t clear, btw, what’s mostly in view here is laughing at people in their presence) but that’s very far from being all humour.
Well look at the effect of the campus PC on campuscomedy.
I cannot recall a single instance in which I, or anyone else known to me, formed a bad opinion of a corporate representative because they didn’t laugh at someone else.
Can you recall all the exact reasons for your exact opinion level about any corporate representative, or anyone for that matter? Or, as seems likely, is that statement pure bullshit in Frankfut’s sense?
look at the effect of the campus PC on campus comedy
So you’ve completely changed the subject: originally you claimed that “we should generally not laugh at other people in their presence because they’ll dislike it more than we like it” is a universal argument against all humour, and now you’re saying that “campus PC” has made some comedians not want to perform at universities.
Can you recall all the exact reasons [...]
Nope. But I can, e.g., be pretty confident that my opinions about corporate representatives were never the result of thinking they were secretly alien lizard-men. And that I never thought ill of a corporate representative because they were too intelligent. Because those would be really weird reasons, and I would expect to remember having them.
pure bullshit in Frankfurt’s sense
Nope. I don’t do that. Your consistent disinclination to answer requests for clarification and evidence makes me wonder, though, whether perhaps you might be projecting a little when you ask me that question.
That’s a universal argument against all humor.
True, however, it goes a good way in that direction and applying your logic consistently certainly would.
It most certainly isn’t a universal argument against all humour. It’s an argument against laughing at people (in case it isn’t clear, btw, what’s mostly in view here is laughing at people in their presence) but that’s very far from being all humour.
I cannot recall a single instance in which I, or anyone else known to me, formed a bad opinion of a corporate representative because they didn’t laugh at someone else. Still less, of course, specifically because they didn’t laugh at someone for wearing a dress.
Well look at the effect of the campus PC on campus comedy.
Can you recall all the exact reasons for your exact opinion level about any corporate representative, or anyone for that matter? Or, as seems likely, is that statement pure bullshit in Frankfut’s sense?
So you’ve completely changed the subject: originally you claimed that “we should generally not laugh at other people in their presence because they’ll dislike it more than we like it” is a universal argument against all humour, and now you’re saying that “campus PC” has made some comedians not want to perform at universities.
Nope. But I can, e.g., be pretty confident that my opinions about corporate representatives were never the result of thinking they were secretly alien lizard-men. And that I never thought ill of a corporate representative because they were too intelligent. Because those would be really weird reasons, and I would expect to remember having them.
Nope. I don’t do that. Your consistent disinclination to answer requests for clarification and evidence makes me wonder, though, whether perhaps you might be projecting a little when you ask me that question.