Of Bee Stings, Mud Pies, and Outhouses: Exploring the Value of Satire Through the Theory of Useful Untruths

Authors

Leonard M. Niehoff, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

In this article, I attempt to fill this conceptual gap within Hustler by offering a theory of how satire functions and why it has a distinctively important place in our public discourse. That theory draws on the work of philosophers like Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hans Vaihinger, Kendall Walton, and Lon Fuller, who have discussed the concept of “useful untruths”—lines of thought where we proceed as if something we know to be false is in fact true, because doing so serves a useful and valuable purpose. In my view, the philosophy of useful untruths can help us understand the complexity of satire, its paradoxical relationship with truth and falsity, why it has an indispensable role in a democratic society, and the reasons it resists tidy analysis under general First Amendment doctrine.

Comments

University of Minnesota Research Paper

Recommended Citation

Niehoff, Leonard. Of Bee Stings, Mud Pies, and Outhouses: Exploring the Value of Satire Through the Theory of Useful Untruths.. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 2019. (Research Paper: State of Our Satirical Union, Silha Center, University of Minnesota.)