Sarah Jansen (Carleton College) will be gi ving her talk on Friday\, January 15\, 2016 in BUCH A201 at 4pm.
TITL
E:
Plato and Laughing at People
ABSTRACT:
In the paper I ex
plore the dialogues’ engagement with the ethics of laughing at people\, arg
uing that\, for Plato\, such laughter is central to the practice (or malpra
ctice) of reasoned discourse. Through a new analysis of both the dialectic
and drama of the dialogues (especially the Philebus)\, I argue that Plato d
istinguishes between bad and good laughing at people. The former is foolish
and serious\; its wicked and immoderate pleasures stifle inquiry and mire
laughers in power plays and ignorance. The latter is wise and playful\; its
virtuous and moderate pleasures advance cooperative inquiry and our knowle
dge of our shared human limitations.
\;
\;
This event is free and open to the public\, faculty\, staff and students.
LOCATION:BUCH A201 GEO:49.269076;-123.254727 URL;VALUE=URI:https://philosophy.ubc.ca/events/event/jan-15-colloquia-sarah -jansen-plato-and-laughing-at-people/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20151101T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR