Philosophy Commons^™

An Ethics Of Amusement, Ashley Caroline Mobley

Doctoral Dissertations

Human beings often hold one another morally responsible for what we find funny or fail to find funny. Though this practice is common and so demands philosophical attention, it remains underexplored in the literature. The purpose of this project is to devote attention to this practice by developing an ethics of amusement.

In chapter 2, I argue for why amusement is an emotion according to incongruity theory—the dominant theory of humor and amusement. With this in mind, I argue in chapter 3 that we are responsible for our emotions insofar as we have emotional agency. In particular, while we cannot …

Temembe And Sven: The Ethics Of Racist Mirth, Stephen Wilke

Masters Theses

You walk past a crowd of people at a bar, grouped around one person. He’s in the middle of telling a joke, the kind you wouldn’t tell your parents but is often told in the amenable company of close friends. You realize that the butt of the joke, the punchline, assumes that people of color are lazy and entitled. This is not an assumption you agree wit, but you find yourself with a feeling of mirth while scoffing at the comedian. His timing is well executed, and the turn of phrase is witty. The joke was racist, and yet emotionally …

11. Objectively Funny Jokes: Comedy’S El Dorado Or A Simple Macguffin?, Michael Cundall

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Could there ever be an objectively funny joke or bit of humor? With the popularity of certain forms of humor, with the appearance of puns as consistent stages in the development of humor in children, this seems a reasonable query. Further, give recent developments in humor theory, and depending on what stance you take on what is essential to the funny or humorous your answer could be yes or no. [excerpt]

03. Humor In The Zhouyi, Bradford Hatcher

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

It was the 1969-1970 school year at Cal Poly, Pomona, when I signed up to study some philosophy under Dick Richards, on the advice of my brother Byron. I was in the middle of a radical renovation of my worldview at the time, having dropped out of college. The rocket science major didn’t work out, once I realized that all the jobs were military, and the math major had suffered from an epiphany while trying to differentiate inverse hyperbolic trig functions on two hits of acid. I needed to switch to some more primitive human endeavors, where it wasn’t so …

05. Aesthetics, Humor, And Virtue: Reflections On Richards And The Good Life, Elizabeth Victor

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

In A Philosopher Looks at the Sense of Humor, Richard C. Richards discusses how one's appreciation of and ability to create incongruities is a necessary condition for developing a sense of humor. One's sense of humor, according to Richards, can be a component of happiness. In this paper, I will build on Richards's concept of the sense of humor. I will argue that Richards account is consistent with an Aristotelian picture of happiness as holistic well-being. Specifically, I will suggest that the attitude underlying the aesthetic and/or the humorous is a kind of pro-attitude that must be cultivated (i.e., …

Praxis, Poems, And Punchlines: Essays In Honor Of Richard C. Richards, Steven Gimbel

Praxis, Poems, and Punchlines: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Richards

Richard C. “Dick” Richards has a 40 year history of being an influential philosopher, teacher, and colleague. This volume collects thoughts, memories, and philosophical essays that engage with and celebrate the life and career of this much beloved figure.