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On Humour (Thinking in Action) [Paperback]

SIMON CRITCHLEY (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £10.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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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 Bestsellers Rank: 113,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #26 in  Books > Humour > Self-Help & Psychology

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More About the Author

Simon Critchley
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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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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

On Humour (Thinking in Action)
72% buy the item featured on this page:
On Humour (Thinking in Action) by SIMON CRITCHLEY Paperback 3.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£10.99
Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)
10% buy
Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) by Professor Michael Billig Paperback
£22.79
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic
7% buy
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson Paperback 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£3.99
Comedy (New Critical Idiom)
6% buy
Comedy (New Critical Idiom) by Andrew Stott Paperback 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£12.34
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining & Informative, 8 Oct 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: On Humour (Thinking in Action) (Paperback)
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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6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Much ado about nothing, 30 Nov 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: On Humour (Thinking in Action) (Paperback)
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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