Question In general, it seems that an action is considered morally wrong when it harms a person (or animal). Is there anything morally wrong with profanity? To clarify, I do not mean swearing at someone, but profanity in general. E.g.: I spent my whole &@&#$ night writing that %@&# paper! Sure, it may be "tasteless", but is there any basis on which to call it wrong?

Accepted:
June 27, 2010

Comments

Great question. In replying to a question on vulgarity earlier this week, I offered a minor defense of swearing, suggestiing that it might be essential in expressing the passionate nature of one's convictions (e.g. the classic case is the law case over whether wearing a shirt with the words "Fuck the draft" was protected under free speech) and using vulgarity might be more effective to get people's attention in an emergency (e.g. if you yelled out "Get out of the ^%$#@ building; it is on fire!" you might get a faster response than if you left out the swearing). But in trying to come up with a general account about why the use of profanity might be wrong in general, I think one would need to argue that it in some way debases language and offends human dignity. I write "offends" rather than some stronger word (like "violates"!) as if a wrong is involved, surely it is not a deep and profound wrong unless other factors are involved (you are using profanity to intimidate children). Degredation and offense is not hard to see with the use of a word like "sh*t" which still has as a primary meaning: excrement or feces, followed by defecating and diarrhea. Insofar as the term retains those meanings (and sometimes it does not, my dictionary lists a fourth definition of "sh*t" as "pretense, lies...nonsense") it does seem to offend or cast one's topic in a grim, vulgar light in the same way as when one were to say in reply to someone's proposal "get that vomit out of my face!" doesn't it?