The Philosophy of Humour

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 literary theory religion psychoanalysis and psychology; this broad focus makes for a richer account of humour its relationship with philosophical thought and its bearing on the human condition. Humour is a creative activity and another aim of the book is to address that aspect of humour. Throughout readers are invited to engage in creative writing exercises designed to exploit this crucial facet of humour and to help them explore relevant issues imaginatively. In this way they will deepen their understanding of those issues whilst at the same time cultivating their own creative skills. Thus the book will be of value both to people interested in the meaning of humour and to those wishing to explore its creative possibilities. Paul McDonald works at the University of Wolverhampton where he is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Course Leader for Creative Writing. He is the author of twelve books including three poetry collections and three comic novels. His criticism includes books on Philip Roth the fiction of the Industrial Midlands and Laughing at the Darkness: Postmodernism and American Humour (Humanities-Ebooks 2011) and Reading Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (2012) also available in Kindle. His research focuses largely on comedy and he takes a perverse pleasure in the fact that Googling ‘the oldest joke in the world’ generates several hundred pages with his name on. REVIEW COMMENT Paul McDonald’s The Philosophy of Humour is a well-researched clearly written and thought provoking read that reflects upon the radically transformative potential of humour. In surveying the whole gamut of philosophers who have written about laughter – starting from Plato and Aristotle through Cicero Hobbes Bergson Kant Schopenhauer and onward to Freud McDonald lucidly explains the major contenders for an overall theory of humour: Incongruity Superiority and Relief. He then goes on to trace the rich intersections of humour with ethics religion and post-modernity. The book uniquely draws on the author’s impressive experience as a university lecturer in Creative Writing to offer a series of exciting and challenging composition exercises. If you write your way through this book as well as read it you’ll emerge with an enviable body of work and more jokes than you can shake a chicken at. So whether you are intrigued by Russell Brand’s meditation practice or agree with Erica Jong that a good laugh is the best way to face an impossible situation then treat yourself to some serious thinking about what it means to be funny and what it means to be human.—Dr Scott Thurston (Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing University of Salford UK) The philosophical study of humour has a complex and fitful history: few people have been brave enough to write about humour seriously and those who have tend to disagree with one another. For those seeking an entry point Paul McDonald’s The Philosophy of Humour (2012) gives a useful overview of the major theories. There are those who believe that laughter derives from a sense of superiority (Hobbes and Bergson) or from a sense of relief or release of energy (Freud’s “economy of psychic expenditure”). But the earliest most primal examples of humour all seem to have some sort of incongruity at their heart.—Jonathan Coe The Guardian