Humor, Laughter and Human Flourishing: A Philosophical Exploration of the Laughing Animal (SpringerBriefs in Education)
Language: English
Pages: 100
ISBN: 3319008331
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This book is a philosophical investigation of the significance of humor and laughter, examining its relation to other human phenomena including truth, nihilism, dreams, friendship, intimacy, aesthetic experience, self-transcendence and education. The author addresses the relative neglect of humor and laughter among philosophers of education with this volume, where the focus is on the significance of humor and laughter for human flourishing.
Central questions are threaded through this work: What does the study of humor and laughter bring to philosophy and specifically to philosophy of education? How is humorist thinking different from other modes of human knowing? What might happen if we were to respond to the absurdity of human existence with humor and laughter? What insights can be learned from a philosophical investigation of humor in relationship to other human phenomena such as dreams, friendship, intimacy, aesthetic experience and self-transcendence? And, finally, how can humor and laughter enhance human existence and flourishing?
The author presents groundbreaking insights into what can be gained from a study of humor and laughter about human existence in general and flourishing in particular.
This work will be of interest to philosophers, especially philosophers of education, as well as to teachers and educators. Its unique blend of philosophical investigation and humorous discourse is both a rigorous and accessible analysis of humor.
and deeds we are also laughing at our own. In addition, Allen’s films as well as many other great comedies illustrate that, in life, the comic and the tragic are closely related and 2.4 Humor, Truth, and Absurdity 25 mutually dependent. Comedy needs tragedy since so much of what we laugh at and consider funny has to do with our own misfortunes and those of others. And tragedy needs comedy because one of the best ways to help us cope with heartbreak and adversity is to approach the unfortunate
one makes up the rules as one goes along. This is the sacred ‘‘Yes’’ that Nietzsche refers to in the quote above, an affirmation of the child’s own will, not on the basis of past experience or a set of values, but simply because she has chosen it. Since the lion is still shaped by its history and culture, this affirmation is something that even it cannot do as it negates the old values and struggles to liberate itself from them. A child can will or create something entirely new by virtue of the
are based on mythical (i.e., metaphysical) assertions that one can never verify with the help of the senses let alone prove empirically. Attributing causal powers to such abstract, metaphysical entities seemed completely absurd to Husserl. In his essay ‘‘Heidegger and Freud,’’ Fred Dallmayr (1993) asserts that Martin Heidegger criticized Freud’s theory for some of the same reasons as Husserl, namely, for construing ‘‘‘empirical’ entities (like organism, psyche, the unconscious) which were
authoritative notion of discipline. This very brief historical survey suggests that for centuries there was considerable tension between education on the one hand and humor and laughter on the other. Education was traditionally associated not only with rigorous learning and stern discipline but also with rational behavior and the pursuit of virtue. In contrast, humor and laughter were considered frivolous activities and were viewed, for the most part, as inconsistent with the kind of behavior and
the fact that both philosophers and comedians often adopt a detached mental perspective in their work. Philosophers typically explore questions that arise from everyday experience in a removed and impartial way. They have inquired about the nature of justice, democracy, or freedom and attempted to construct comprehensive theories of these concepts. In investigating such concepts, philosophers employ tools such as linguistic analysis, rational argumentation, and logical investigation in order to