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  • A Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt -- And Why They Shouldn't

    A Slap in the Face by Irvine, William B.;

    Why Insults Hurt -- And Why They Shouldn't

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 14.49
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    Product details:

    • Publisher OUP USA
    • Date of Publication 26 October 2017

    • ISBN 9780190665043
    • Binding Paperback
    • No. of pages264 pages
    • Size 180x127x15 mm
    • Weight 181 g
    • Language English
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    Short description:

    In A Slap in the Face, William Irvine undertakes a wide-ranging investigation of insults, their history, the role they play in social relationships, and the science behind them. He offers advice, based primarily on the writings of the Stoic philosophers, on how best to curb our own insulting tendencies and how to respond to the insults that are directed our way. A rousing follow-up to A Guide to the Good Life, A Slap in the Face will interest anyone who's ever delivered an insult or felt the sting of one--in other words, everyone.

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    Long description:

    Insults are part of the fabric of daily life. But why do we insult each other? Why do insults cause us such pain? Can we do anything to prevent or lessen this pain? Most importantly, how can we overcome our inclination to insult others?

    In A Slap in the Face, now issued in paperback with a new preface, William Irvine undertakes a wide-ranging investigation of insults, their history, the role they play in social relationships, and the science behind them. He examines not just memorable zingers, such as Elizabeth Bowen's description of Aldous Huxley as "The stupid person's idea of a clever person," but subtle insults as well, such as when someone insults us by reporting the insulting things others have said about us: "I never read bad reviews about myself," wrote entertainer Oscar Levant, "because my best friends invariably tell me about them." Irvine also considers the role insults play in our society: they can be used to cement relations, as when a woman playfully teases her husband, or to enforce a social hierarchy, as when a boss publicly berates an employee. He goes on to investigate the many ways society has tried to deal with insults--by adopting codes of politeness, for example, and outlawing hate speech--but concludes that the best way to deal with insults is to immunize ourselves against them: we need to transform ourselves in the manner recommended by Stoic philosophers. We should, more precisely, become insult pacifists, trying hard not to insult others and laughing off their attempts to insult us.

    A rousing follow-up to A Guide to the Good Life, A Slap in the Face will interest anyone who's ever delivered an insult or felt the sting of one--in other words, everyone.

    brilliant ... Essential reading in our age of rage.

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    Table of Contents:

    Preface
    1. Introduction
    PART ONE: THE INSULT ARSENAL
    2. Words like Daggers
    3. Subtle Digs
    4. Bludgeoned with Praise
    5. Benign Insults
    PART TWO: INSULT PSYCHOLOGY
    6. A World of Hurt
    7. Who Gets Hurt?
    8. Why We Insult
    PART THREE: DEALING WITH INSULTS
    9. Personal Responses to Insults
    10. Societal Responses to Insults
    11. Insults-The Inner Game
    12. Insights
    Notes
    Works Cited

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