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Why can't philosophers laugh? / Katrin Froese.

by Froese, Katrin, 1970- author.

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[Cham, Switzerland] : Palgrave Macmillan, [2017]

Laughter -- Philosophy.

Comic, The -- Philosophy.

Wit and humor -- Philosophy.

Laughter -- China.

Laughter -- Europe.

9783319550435 (hardback : alk. paper) :

3319550438 (hardback : alk. paper)

viii, 227 pages ; 22 cm

Introduction -- Part I. European perspectives -- We have a body!: Kant, Schopenhauer and Bergson -- Redeeming laughter in Nietzsche -- Humour and finitude in Kierkegaard -- Part II. Chinese perspectives -- A comic Confucius? -- Humour as the playful sidekick to language in the Zhuangzi -- Laughing for nothing in Chan Buddhism -- After/words: laughing philosophy away/philosophy laughing away?

This book analyzes Western and Chinese philosophical texts to determine why laughter and the comic have not been a major part of philosophical discourse. Katrin Froese maintains that many philosophical accounts of laughter try to unearth laughter's purpose, thereby rendering it secondary to the intentional and purposive aspects of human nature that impel us to philosophize. Froese also considers texts that take laughter and the comic as starting points, attempting to philosophize out of laughter rather than merely trying to unearth reasons for laughter. The book proposes that continuously unraveling philosophical assumptions through the comic and laughter may be necessary to live well.

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