The future of post-human humor : a preface to a new theory of joking and laughing / Peter Baofu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baofu, Peter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wit and humor.

Joking.

Laughter.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (465 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Cambridge International Science Pub., c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book provides an alternative (better) way to understand the future of humor, especially in the dialectic context of joking and laughing while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). Thus, this book offers a new theory (that is, the metamorphic theory of humor) to go beyond the existing approaches in the literature on humor in a novel way."

Contents:

Intro

CONTENTS

Part One: Introduction

Part Two: Joking

Part Three: Laughing

Part Four: Conclusion

TABLES

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

PART ONE Introduction

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION - THE FUN OF HUMOR

Humor to Be, or ot to Be, a Frog Can

Humor in Relation to Joking and Laughing

Joking

Laughing

The Theoretical Debate

The Mental Argument

The Natural Argument

The Societal Argument

The Cultural Argument

The Metamorphic Argument

The Metamorphic Theory of Humor

Theory and Meta-Theory

The Classification of Theory and Meta-Theory

A Unified Theory of Everything

The Logic of Existential Dialectics

The Conception of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontics)

The Syntax of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontomethodology and Ontologic)

The Semantics of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontosemantics)

The Pragmatics of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontopragmatics)

Sophisticated Methodological Holism

Chapter Outline

Some Clarifications

In Conversation with My Previous Books

Case Studies and Examples

Detailed Analysis versus Overall Synthesis

Two Distinctive Features of Using Quotations

The Use of Neologisms

PART TWO Joking

CHAPTER 2. JOKING AND ITS DOUBLE FACES

The Benignity of Joking

Joking and the Mind

Joking, the Mind, and the Psychology of Jokes

Joking, Black Comedy, and the Question about Human Nature

Joking and Nature

Joking, IFF, and the Controversy about Evolution

Joking and Society

Joking, and the Politics of Satire

Joking, Race/Ethnic Humor, and the Power Equation

Joking and Culture

Joking, Flatulence Humor, and the Culture of Shifting Blame

The Techniques of Joking, and the Cultural Factor

The Malignity of Joking

PART THREE Laughing

CHAPTER 3. LAUGHING AND ITS DUAL FACETS.

The Joy of Laughing

Laughing and the Mind

Laughing, Health, and the Dark Sides

Laughing, Therapy, and the Debate in Gelotology

Laughing and Nature

Laughing, Animals, and the Contentious Comparison

Laughing, Animals, and the Evolutionary Claim

Laughing and Society

Laughing, and the Dispute about Social Functions

Laughing and Culture

Laughing, Writers, and the Role of Intellectual Culture

Laughing, Death, and the Coverage in Popular Culture

The Sorrow of Laughing

PART FOUR Conclusion

CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION - THE FUTURE OF HUMOR

Beyond Joking and Laughing

1st Thesis: The Absoluteness-Relativeness Principle

2nd Thesis: The Predictability-Unpredictability Principle

3rd Thesis: The Explicability-Inexplicability Principle

4th Thesis: The Preciseness-Vagueness Principle

5th Thesis: The Simpleness-Complicatedness Principle

6th Thesis: The Openness-Hiddenness Principle

7th Thesis: The Denseness-Emptiness Principle

8th Thesis: The Slowness-Quickness Principle

9th Thesis: The Expansion-Contraction Principle

10th Thesis: The Theory-Praxis Principle

11th Thesis: The Convention-5ovelty Principle

12th Thesis: The Evolution-Transformation Principle

13th Thesis: The Symmetry-Asymmetry Principle

14th Thesis: The Softness-Hardness Principle

15th Thesis: The Seriousness-Playfulness Principle

16th Thesis: The Regression-Progression Principle

17th Thesis: The Same-Difference Principle

18th Thesis: The Post-Human Rendition

Towards the Post-Human Rendition

Four Great Future Transformations of Humor

Enormous Implications

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-01225-1

9786613012258

1-907343-27-X

OCLC:

707096187