Learning outcomes:
This course has been designed to enable you to:
- Assess methodologies for investigating humour in a philosophical way
- Develop philosophical skills in argumentation and analysis
- Gain a deeper understanding of humour, a fundamental human trait
Course sessions:
1. Philosophy and Humour: A Double Act?
Philosophy takes all matters seriously. Perhaps for this reason, philosophers have tended to shy away from the lighter side of life. Philosophers, from Aristotle to Kant, write in disparaging terms about laughter, as unnecessary or simply cruel. And yet, as I will argue, there are good reasons why philosophy can and should take humour seriously.
1.1 Philosophy and humour: A funny bone of contention
Why have philosophers had such difficulty taking humour seriously?
1.2 The respect due to life
Can, or should, philosophers theorise about humour? Or is it too important?
1.3 Taking humour seriously
What would it mean to have philosophy engage seriously with humour?
2. Theories of Humour
Over the last 150 years or so philosophers have offered a variety of explanations for why we laugh, with a view to explaining why some things are funny and some things are not. In this session we will look at four key theories of humour. These try to explain humour in terms of: i) Superiority, ii) Relief, iii) Incongruity and iv) Play.
2.1 Theories of humour: part 1
We will look at the superiority and relief theories of humour.
2.2 Theories of humour: part 2
Next: the incongruity and play theories.
3. A Martian Perspective
Humour is not simply about what makes us laugh. There is an absurd quality to humour that involves seeing ‘the familiar as if it were strange, and the strange as if it were familiar’. That is to say, humour often surprises us with what we already know. This is often the aim of philosophers too — to shed light on those aspects of human nature that are so familiar to us that we don’t notice them.
3.1 What’s funny about philosophy?
Does philosophy itself offer a humorous approach to life?
3.2 The strange and the familiar
Is the approach to life mentioned in the last session a contemplative one? How does this manifest itself in philosophy and comedy?
4. The Tragic, the Comic and the Absurd
From Albert Camus' existentialist philosophy to Harold Pinter's Comedy of Menace, attempts have been made to fuse comedy with tragedy. In so doing, philosophers and dramatists have expressed something profound about life itself.
4.1 Come-tragedy Philosophy seeks to understand all aspects of life.
Historically, it has dealt with the tragic elements in more detail. But is life a tragedy or a comedy (or both)?
4.2 The absurd
The common thread running between comedy and tragedy is absurdity. What can a philosophical examination of absurdity help us to understand?
5. Humour and Violence
Humour is related to violence in a variety of ways. Some are superficial, eg 'punchline', others are more substantial, eg one can no more argue with a fist than one can argue with laughter. Accordingly, both humour and violence are ways of influencing people's behaviour non-rationally.
5.1 Can we laugh at anything?
Should we impose limits on what we can laugh at?
5.2 Punchline: Humour and violence
Is laughter a form of non-rational persuasion?
We consider this by comparing it to the use of violence.
Non-credit bearing
Please note that our Virtual Summer Festival of Learning courses are non-credit bearing.
Certificate of Participation
A certificate of participation will be sent to you electronically within a week of your Summer Festival course(s) finishing.
