Philosophy Humor

Comic novelist and critic Paul McDonald explores the philosophy of humour in a book that will appeal to both philosophers and creative writers alike. There are numerous competing theories of humour and laughter, and the absence of a single theory implies the importance of assessing them all. One aim of this book is to do exactly that. It concentrates mainly on philosophical approaches to humour— including those of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Descartes, Hobbes, Bergson, Kant, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Freud and Bakhtin. But the discussion explores other fields such as cultural studies, ...

Can jokes win a hostile room, a hopeless argument, or even an election? You bet they can, according to Cicero, and he knew what he was talking about. One of Rome's greatest politicians, speakers, and lawyers, Cicero was also reputedly one of antiquity's funniest people. After he was elected commander-in-chief and head of state, his enemies even started calling him "the stand-up Consul". How to Tell a Joke provides a lively new translation of Cicero's essential writing on humor alongside that of the later Roman orator and educator Quintilian.

Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.

Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humor and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humor subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?

These books will make you laugh out loud while coming to terms with reality. The American Exile Trilogy contains 3 non-fiction novels authored by Max Meeks from 2012 until 2024. They describe Max’s actual living conditions shared with the American under-class during the last decade following what had been a pleasant middle-class experience. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the horrors of Communist Russia. Max Meeks has lived through shocking realities 100 years later. America fell from grace and it’s time to address the actual situation where it’s at. Once consciousness of ugly ...

Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women's rights to the beer that helped create - and destroy - South America's first empire.

Everyone's favorite houseguest who never left, Leon Black (played by award-winning comedian JB Smoove from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm), drops his wisdom and good-bad advice for the masses. Learn the secrets Larry David has gleaned from the Falstaff of television. Be forewarned: in opening this audiobook and Leon's mind, you need to be prepared for straight talk. The kind of unfiltered blunt straight talk that pounds on your door, invites itself in, makes itself at home, and helps itself to your food, your security pass code, and your expensive organic beet juice.

Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.

An entertaining and insightful examination of the Emmy-award winning American satirical news show, broadcast on Comedy Central in the US, and (in an edited edition) on More4 in the UK and CNN International around the world.

Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.

That Donald Trump is an asshole is a fact widely agreed upon - even by his supporters, who actually like that about him. But his startling political rise makes the question of just what sort of asshole he is, and how his assholedom may help to explain his success, one not just of philosophical interest but of almost existential urgency. Enter the philosopher Aaron James, author of the foundational text in the burgeoning field of Asshole Studies: the best-selling Assholes: A Theory.

We live in a universe of endless potential futures. In this collection of stories, characters confront the unique dilemmas posed by the version of the future they inhabit. They struggle with dangerous technology, mysterious alien entities, gods, artificial intelligence, utopias, dystopias, and life itself. General issue science fiction stuff, in other words.

This book is a collection of several months of written meditations concerning the conditions over which the author has no control, the few phenomena that author can control, and sporadic rumination about the author’s bouts of confusion, alienation, and a gradual, meandering progress toward something vaguely like equanimity (or at least something vaguely less like despair).

This lively and engaging book is the ideal introduction for anyone who has ever been puzzled by what philosophy is or what it is for. Edward Craig argues that philosophy is not an activity born from another planet; learning about it is just a matter of broadening and deepening what most of us do already. He shows that philosophy is no mere intellectual pastime.

Uns alle treibt die Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens um. Dabei ist es leicht, sich im Labyrinth der Realitäten zu verlieren. Fest steht: Das Leben ist eine Reise. Und ein Reiseführer dringend nötig. Auf gewohnt humorvolle Weise stellt sich Dieter Nuhr unerschrocken den Hürden unserer Existenz und liefert alle relevanten Antworten auf die wichtigen Fragen des Lebens: Was ist hier los, wo geht es lang? Wo ist die Lösung? Und wer kennt das Problem?

“Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?” - Last words of William Saroyan But there are no exceptions. Now what? James Scott Bell spent a good chunk of 2015 thinking and writing about that. Some famous people died that year. So did others not so famous. It doesn't matter, because each life is a story. And if we look deeply enough they all have something to say. In Some People Are Dead, Bell weaves his musings on the departed into a form of essay combining memoir and reflection, thoughts on how to live and how to die, and an ...

What's so special about Ted? Nobody knows...and certainly not Ted! This certainly isn't what Ted pictured as far as alien abductions! Well, he's not really in a position to complain, because his new home is a space ship crewed by over six thousand gorgeous females with bodies drawn from his own memories and desires... Ted isn't going anywhere anytime soon. With his trusted allies, the gorgeous blonde Gwen and the Earth-obsessed hottie, Hayden, Ted tries to unravel the breeding program he's been embroiled in, fight the mysterious and totally desirable Council, and maybe even find a decent ...

What's so special about Ted? Nobody knows...and certainly not Ted! Ted's back for more in this FIFTH and FINAL installment! Well, Ted didn't really go anywhere, but the let's not forget the fact that he's still trapped on a space ship crewed by over six thousand gorgeous females drawn from his own desires... Ted isn't going anywhere anytime soon. With his trusted allies, the gorgeous blonde Gwen and the Earth-obsessed hottie, Hayden, Ted puts his plan in motion to stop the power-hungry, though totally gorgeous MILF Annalisa. Will his plan work, or will more sinister forces prevail? Join ...

The What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic listenership. Already published titles in this series include: literature, salvation, mercy, being Catholic, God, and philosophy.

Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."