• ucarr
    1.5k
    It’s a party until,

    TALKING HEAD 1
    Now, brother. What you wanna do is actuate into
    practice the highest manifestation of yourself.

    TALKING HEAD 2
    You talkin’ aesthetics of selfhood, ain’t cha?

    TALKING HEAD 1
    Sho you right. But wait a minute. Consider the pleasure
    of the public through art. You cain’t jes please yosef.

    TALKING HEAD 2
    How you gonna please others ain’t pleasin’ yosef?

    TALKING HEAD 1
    Well, did Jimi Hendrix invent heavy metal?

    TALKING HEAD 2
    Now listen up. Taz Lightnin’ taught
    Hank Williams his fundamentals and --

    SOCIALITE 1
    Gentlemen! Pondering the imponderables, are we?

    SOCIALITE 2
    I’m getting hors d’oeuvres in the other room. Anybody?

    SOCIALITE 1
    Me too!

    SOCIALITE 3
    Me three!

    As the heady conversation progresses, the socially adept vacate the den for hors d’oeuvres in the living room. For more on the conversation:

    https://youtu.be/8ts2ePmYEQ4

    https://youtu.be/Emf10fPkVT4

    Philosophy is laugh-out-loud good times for those who love it, especially in the heat of battle with all marbles on the table.

    The best philosophers want to live beyond winning_losing because – know it or not – being any good – losing-yet-interesting is better than winning-but-conventional. It means the dance is not over and losing to keep dancing – like 180 Proof taught me about gamblers – “that’s passion, man!”

    https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/672802

    What’s more fun – if you’re a blabbermouth – than answering a question that can’t be answered?

    What’s more inspiring than buffooning for a planet lacking all desire to solve the world’s problems?

    When I say philosophy is comedy, I don’t exactly mean: a fusillade of Henny Youngman one-liners; Bob Hope snarking the mighty with taunts; Dave Chappelle body-slamming the sexual diaspora.

    I mean Quine dropkicking analyticity with some anti-de re modal logic before getting pancaked into the mud by Kripke and Plantinga.

    Philosophy can get serious – see word salad above – but, essentially, it ain’t serious. It’s comedy. Entertainment, y’all.

    When a politician declares war, alerting the nation to the best and the brightest going down harm’s way, losing their lives, that’s drama. War can sometimes make us laugh, but, essentially, it’s unfunny.

    Philosophy looks serious, until you get close enough to see Wizard of Oz in a big mask; a Munchkin backstage pulling levers keeping alive illusion of lion at full roar.

    Some modal logic: the politician declaring war ain’t funny whilst the philosopher declaring war on declaring war is funny. The two declarations are in different modes.

    If you’re a sane person, it’s no fun sending young people to their destruction. Drama.

    If you’re a passionate person, it’s big fun debating sending young people to their destruction. Comedy.

    It’s the difference of intentions that separates the politician from the philosopher. The politician, declaring war, grabs the necessity prong of the Modal Logic Fork. The philosopher, declaring war-on-war, grabs the possibility prong.

    Well, that’s the logical difference between drama and comedy. Drama concerns real and necessary danger. Comedy concerns possible and avoidable danger. Drama breeds dread, comedy breeds (release of pent up anxiety) laughter.

    Since life always presents danger, the omnipresence of danger sometimes makes drama look like comedy and vice versa.

    How is it that philosophy, so formidably intellectual, lands in the comedy column?

    By its nature, philosophy cannot be content with reality per se. Serious concern with reality per se is reportage.

    When you look at some of the raging debates herein, the question: What is real? appears important.

    Well, the question: What is real? is metaphysics. Well, as soon as you’re asking that question, reality becomes a football kicking up, down and around the field.

    Philosophy tries to land on the necessity prong of the Modal Logic Fork; it does land on the possible prong.

    The blood face of passionate ideas gets expressed to audience. With racing mind and pounding heart, Starbuck transforms mundane into vivid. Dance the dance with jeering, you fancy thinker.

    Everybody wants to give world their piece of mind. Who’s got ego enough to do it?

    We do!
  • Baden
    16.4k


    I didn't even get one laugh out of the Critique of Pure Reason.

    Just sayin'.
  • 180 Proof
    15.4k
    :smirk:
    Life is too important to be taken seriously. — Oscar Wilde

    Well, for me, philosophy is inherently absurdist rather than comedic (even though most philosophizers are clowns).
  • dclements
    498


    Philosophy is just a form of critical thinking. Unfortunately, not a lot of people know how to do it well nowadays as we are too often forced to act without really thinking about what we are doing. This is likely more true for people in the US than other places in the world.
  • Philosophim
    2.6k
    Pop philosophy, or forum philosophy of people just spouting opinions could fit in the OP. Proper philosophy which concerns itself with a logical solution to a problem divested of ego is much more serious.
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    I didn't even get one laugh out of the Critique of Pure Reason.Baden

    :clap: :grin:
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    Well, for me, philosophy is inherently absurdist rather than comedic (even though most philosophizers are clowns).180 Proof

    :ok: :smile:
  • ucarr
    1.5k


    Philosophy is just a form of critical thinkingdclements

    Agreed. Can we also make space for a bit of imagination?

    ...not a lot of people know how to do it well nowadays as we are too often forced to act without really thinking about what we are doing.dclements

    Yes. Info overload.

    This is likely more true for people in the US than other places in the world.dclements

    R-O-C-K-IN-THE-U-S-A! - Faster_smarter_better; condensed books; one-minute eggs; Cliff Notes; NFL highlight reels; motel rooms by the hour; muscle cars; fast food...

    https://youtu.be/9p3DzUwxI0o
  • ucarr
    1.5k


    Proper philosophy which concerns itself with a logical solution to a problem divested of ego is much more serious.Philosophim

    What you say is true. The big "however" is no human (like me) is logical all of the time nor entirely without ego. :rofl:
  • Joshs
    5.8k


    Philosophy is laugh-out-loud good times for those who love it, especially in the heat of battle with all marbles on the table.ucarr

    Funny how? How is philosophy funny? Like a clown?
  • Tom Storm
    9.2k
    I get most of my laughs from the unintentionally funny - not stand up comedy or allegedly funny movies - but life. Philosophy is too much like a colonoscopy of the mind for me to laugh at, but the overarching notion that humans can arrive at ultimate truth does make me laugh - especially at some of the ways people think they may achieve this. But it is also sad, which is why I agree with Montaigne that we laugh and cry at the same thing.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    ...philosophy is life.ucarr
    Philosophy Is Comedy. — ucarr

    Divine comedy therefore.
  • Paine
    2.5k
    As Bromberg said:

    "My mind was writing checks my body couldn't cash."
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    [ ... ] Without laughter there is no Dao. — Laozi
  • ucarr
    1.5k


    Funny how? How is philosophy funny? Like a clown?Joshs

    Aw, man! You almost got me!
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    ...the overarching notion that humans can arrive at ultimate truth does make me laugh...Tom Storm

    It makes everybody laugh. :rofl:
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    [ ... ] Without laughter there is no Dao.Laozi

    Sword of truth!
  • jgill
    3.9k
    Philosophy is laugh-out-loud good times for those who love it, especially in the heat of battle with all marbles on the table.ucarr

    I've wondered what happens to those when a philosopher loses them. Now I see where they end up.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k


    My own, perhaps idiosyncratic, take on philosophy as joke, a laughable matter, a ludicrous proposition ...

    Philosophy is like one of those small mock-up towns, complete with dummy occupants equipped with sensors, and gas station, and convenience stores, and a children's park, etc., constructed specifically to test the destructive power of atomic bombs (critical thinking).
  • Outlander
    2.2k
    An equation is gibberish for those who aren't meant to utilize it's final product. And rightfully so.
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    I've wondered what happens to those when a philosopher loses them. Now I see where they end up.jgill

    Oh, yeah! Aspirant philosopher-in-training knuckles down with his grandfather-to-thumb-acer (all black, of course). Thinks he's gonna win! And yea! Pulls it off! Grand prize, all-expenses-paid vacation in the The Twilight Zone.
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    Philosophy is like one of those small mock-up towns, complete with dummy occupants equipped with sensors, and gas station, and convenience stores, and a children's park, etc., constructed specifically to test the destructive power of atomic bombs (critical thinking).Agent Smith

    Long stretch of time with dozens of mock-ups getting vaporized until, one fateful day, the atomic hurricane knocks the latest Hooterville sideways and... it stays upright, un-vaporized. Influx of residents as real estate values skyrocket. Join the cocktail party chit-chat and you're bound to hear someone say, "Are you cotton to the latest take on being post-modern? Gender phantasia!"
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    An equation is gibberish for those who aren't meant to utilize it's final product. And rightfully so.Outlander

    Day-old bread for the rabble.
  • ucarr
    1.5k
    ...philosophy is life.
    — ucarr
    Philosophy Is Comedy.
    — ucarr

    Divine comedy therefore.
    unenlightened

    :grin: Flattery comes unexpected. Thank-you for putting my name near your beautiful thought.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    No reason to get excited, the thief, he kindly spoke
    There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
    But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
    So let us not talk falsely, the hour is getting late
    — Bob somebody-or-other
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Long stretch of time with dozens of mock-ups getting vaporized until, one fateful day, the atomic hurricane knocks the latest Hooterville sideways and... it stays upright, un-vaporized. Influx of residents as real estate values skyrocket. Join the cocktail party chit-chat and you're bound to hear someone say, "Are you cotton to the latest take on being post-modern? Gender phantasia!"ucarr

    :up: We're in for a treat!
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • Josh2021
    2
    To me philosophy is comedy, tragedy, satire, irony, and realism all at once. To see all of philosophy as comedy is to uphold one genre or perspective as a panorama. Every philosophy is a symptom of the psychology of an individual and I'm afraid the range of those persons within the history of philosophy is enough to fill the pages of Shakespeare. Philosophy seen as a human activity rather than body of knowledge is comedy, tragedy, satire, irony, and realism all at once.
  • Elysium House
    22
    This has been a very enjoyable discussion to read and think about. I often think about the importance of comedy when considering the most difficult or "serious" matters, and a large part of what I read from many of the most esteemed philosophers seems disappointingly (and irritatingly) dry. Humorless to the point where I question if such an intelligent person has made contact with the human experience at all. Then again, I'm often accused of being inappropriate with comedic takes at serious times.

    Still, laughter has a way of helping complex or rough ideas go down smoother.
  • Manuel
    4.2k


    As Wittgenstein famously said, a serious work of philosophy could be done consisting mostly of jokes.

    Or as Schopenhauer said, on an individual basis life appears as tragedy, but looked at from a species perspective, life look like a comedy.

    If I sometimes laugh to myself, it is because the questions I ask are so difficult to even give a bad guess, then humor must be a component. As I was walking today, I don't know why I was contemplating what constitutes a trivial answer? What makes something obvious to everybody (or most people anyway) as opposed to something that is not obvious?

    Maybe something to do with immediate awareness and expectation, but, I couldn't go further. So I laughed - briefly mind you, not like seeing Monty Python or something.

    But, at the same time, for me, philosophy fundamentally begins with what Raymond Tallis said, "astonishment".

    And if front of the astonishing, I suppose many reactions are valid.
  • ucarr
    1.5k


    Thanks for weighing in. I hope you’ll keep doing so.

    :up:
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