Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Ridicule
The ridicule is often used to refute bad arguments. Generally, ridiculing a bad argument would most likely be offensive, and may even be considered humorous, depending on the sense of humor of the individual of the opponent or the target audience. Ridiculing a bad argument occurs quite frequently in the work place. For example, while working in the Information Technology department and dealing with a virus infected computer, Person A might claim that they have a fix for the virus by completely wiping out the system and starting over. Person B would then refute and discredit Person A by pointing out that formatting the computer would result in the user having the possibility of losing important data. Person A might then retort by saying, “well if I start the entire PC image over again, then the virus would be guaranteed to be cleaned.” While the statement is true, Person A is trying to ridicule Person B by saying that the problem will be resolved – regardless of whether or not the customer is happy or content with the possibility of data loss. Instead of going this route, Person A should find another work around to clean the system of any infected software.
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Hi DLo,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post; I found your examples clear and easy to understand. I have yet to read farther in the text than Chapter 6, so this ridicule information is all new to me (aside from what I knew about ridicule previous to this course/post). When I generally think of ridicule, I think of a teasing and taunting way of bothering or tormenting. I like how your example tied a less drastic form of ridicule into the workplace. I'm sure stunts like this occur in almost every job, as well as day to day life. It is important to identify and understand different forms of ridicule. Good job!