Dialogic ethics and the virtue of humor

Measuring Political Deliberation: A Discourse Quality Index

“…Not all theorists accept this framework as the proper definition of deliberation. For instance, Basu (1999) (see also Gabardi, 2001) criticizes Habermas for leaving out humor from his conception of deliberation. Whereas Habermas appears to view humor as a vice, Basu views it as a virtue, since it may contribute to openness in a debate.…”

Beyond “Political” Communicative Spaces: Talking Politics on the Wife Swap Discussion Forum

“…Some democratic theorists maintain that rational discourse needs to be broadened, allowing for communicative forms such as greeting, gossip, rhetoric, and storytelling (Dryzek, 2000;Gutmann & Thompson, 1996;Young, 1996). Others argue that emotions and humor are essential to any notion of good deliberation (Basu, 1999;Mendelberg, 2001;O'Neill, 2002;Rosenberg, 2004). Indeed, expressives are inherent to political talk, and it would be hard to imagine people actively engaging in such talk if their emotions were not there to provoke them to do so.…”

“…The first was its social function. For example, humor may be used for social bonding, to express frustration and anger towards authority, to criticize another, or to reinforce stereotypes (Basu, 1999;Koller, 1988). However, Wife Swap participants used humor mostly to entertain.…”

The Use of Expressives in Online Political Talk: Impeding or Facilitating the Normative Goals of Deliberation?

“…Some democratic theorists maintain that rational discourse needs to be broadened, allowing for communicative forms such as greeting, gossip, rhetoric and storytelling [5,6]. Others have argued that emotions and humour are essential to any notion of good deliberation [7,8]. Indeed, when people talk politics, they not only draw from their cognitive and rational capacities, but they also draw on their emotions.…”

“…Humour here usually came in the form of wisecracks, jokes, sarcasm and banter. 7 There were two focuses of humour under 'to entertain'. First, humour here often focused on making fun of politicians and the Labour government in general.…”