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On Humour (Thinking in Action)
 
 

On Humour (Thinking in Action) (Paperback)

by SIMON CRITCHLEY (Author) "Jokes tear holes in our usual predictions about the empirical world ..." (more)
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (31 May 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0415251214
  • ISBN-13: 978-0415251211
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 14 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #14 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy > Topics > Aesthetics
    #37 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Drama > Theatre Studies

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Product Description

Product Description
This is a fascinating and beautifully written book on what philosophy can tell us about humour and about what it is to be human. It will fascinate and intrigue anyone with a sense of humour.

From the Back Cover
On Humour is a fascinating, beautifully written and funny book on what humour can tell us about being human. Simon Critchley skilfully probes some of the most perennial but least understood aspects of humour: why is that we mock death with laughter? If humour is uniquely human, why do we laugh at animals so much? Is joking a private matter, or do we share humour?
Throughout, On Humour uses arresting examples from antiquity to modernity and from laughing at our bodies to the darker side of humour in racism and sexism. Critchley also draws on writers who have used humour, including Swift, Sterne, Bergson, Beckett and Freud, turning the comical inside out to reveal some delectable insights about what we find funny. Above all, he reveals that the humanity of humour is in being able to laugh at oneself.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Jokes tear holes in our usual predictions about the empirical world. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining & Informative, 8 Oct 2002
By A Customer
Critchley's book is not an overview of what human beings find funny and he is quite open about this. He recognises that jokes, laughter etc. have been around for a long time but that humour is a relatively 'modern' invention. What he has to say about humour is engaging, entertaining and as in depth as one could expect from a book this size. I found myself smiling at the examples he cites and largely convinced by the argument he presents. Most importantly for a philosophy book it made me think about humour more deeply and also made me look at the world around me in a different light. 'On Humour, is a certainly a book that I would recommend.
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5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Much ado about nothing, 30 Nov 2001
By A Customer
Not very impressed with this. Critchley presents us with a rather prescriptive view of humour which although at times is a little interesting, is in the main quite unplausable. What is never realised acknowledged is that the kind of humour discussed in the book is not what makes up the majority of the humour that most of us laugh at, but in fact a kind of "wry smile" humour, laughing at the hopelessness of it all. This is all well and good but the book purports to be a discussion of humour in general, yet falls well wide of the mark.
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