Abstract
It is often said that humor is a powerful tool that is helpful for living a good life. When saying this, we assume that humor is used sporadically for chance encounters with the spontaneously funny. In what follows, however, I lay out the educational premises of a new worldview, which, by making systematic use of self-referential humor in order to handle events that are not immediately funny, leads to a stable state which philosophers call the good life. The multifaceted philosophic notion of the “good life” will be reduced to the principles proposed below; but humor as presented here can help achieve any philosophical ideal, even one that is not in the spirit of the view articulated here.
However, the form of philosophic humor that I advance in this article requires education, mainly self-education, as is often the case with much successful education. Thus, as intimated by existential philosophers, I maintain, first, that laughter can and should be learned; and second, that the discipline of laughter is philosophically significant because laughter enables to endorse new norms and to change one’s attitude towards oneself, others, and the world. To achieve the educational aims of this article, the theoretical clarification of the worldview that I introduce, Homo risibilis or the ridiculous human being, is illustrated by exercises that help implementing it.
About the author
Tufts University, USA;
References
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher
- The Contemptuous Laughter of Democritus and Nietzsche
- A Joke: On the Plurality of Worlds and Ostrichist
- Joke Capital vs. Punching Up/Punching Down: Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target
- Humanistic Ethics of Humor: The Problematics of Punching Up and Kicking Down
- “You Must Be Joking!”: Theory, Religion, and The Domestication of the Ludic
- Humor in Chinese Traditions of Thought, Part One: Systematic Reflections in View of Ancient Confucian and Daoist Applications of Humor
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate Edited by John Marmysz
- The Shared Presupposition Norm of Joking: A Philosophical Exploration
- “I Finally Got the Joke”
- Do Joke-Telling Norms Apply to Laughtivism?
- “I’m Only Human”: A Self-Referential Sense of Humor and Meaningful Living
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
- Recaptioning Cartoons from Historical Turkish Humor Magazines as Feminist Media Activism: The Case of Boşboğaz
- Humor in Philosophy Education
- Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
- How Can Philosophy Improve Your Sense of Humor?
- Symposium
- Symposium Edited by Steven Gimbel Dustin Peone. Making Philosophy Laugh: Humor, Irony, and Folly in Philosophical Thought. Cascade Books, 2023. pp. 158. Critics
- In Search of a Lost Philosophical Humor
- The Moment of Laughter
- On Making Philosophy Laugh
- “Where the enemy is mighty, one must be clever”: Peone, Vico, and Guareschi on Power in Humor
- Author’s Response
- Author’s Response
- Humor Resartus
- Book Reviews
- Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher
- The Contemptuous Laughter of Democritus and Nietzsche
- A Joke: On the Plurality of Worlds and Ostrichist
- Joke Capital vs. Punching Up/Punching Down: Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target
- Humanistic Ethics of Humor: The Problematics of Punching Up and Kicking Down
- “You Must Be Joking!”: Theory, Religion, and The Domestication of the Ludic
- Humor in Chinese Traditions of Thought, Part One: Systematic Reflections in View of Ancient Confucian and Daoist Applications of Humor
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate Edited by John Marmysz
- The Shared Presupposition Norm of Joking: A Philosophical Exploration
- “I Finally Got the Joke”
- Do Joke-Telling Norms Apply to Laughtivism?
- “I’m Only Human”: A Self-Referential Sense of Humor and Meaningful Living
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
- Recaptioning Cartoons from Historical Turkish Humor Magazines as Feminist Media Activism: The Case of Boşboğaz
- Humor in Philosophy Education
- Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
- How Can Philosophy Improve Your Sense of Humor?
- Symposium
- Symposium Edited by Steven Gimbel Dustin Peone. Making Philosophy Laugh: Humor, Irony, and Folly in Philosophical Thought. Cascade Books, 2023. pp. 158. Critics
- In Search of a Lost Philosophical Humor
- The Moment of Laughter
- On Making Philosophy Laugh
- “Where the enemy is mighty, one must be clever”: Peone, Vico, and Guareschi on Power in Humor
- Author’s Response
- Author’s Response
- Humor Resartus
- Book Reviews
- Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers