Topic:	Humor
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Guest:	Ted Cohen, Professor in Philosophy, the College, the Committee on Art and Design, and the Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, University of Chicago
What is it?	Ken, John and guest Ted Cohen , author of Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters discuss the philosophical aspects of humor.  What is humor?  What makes some jokes funny?  Why did the chicken cross the road?  Tune in for deep thoughts and big laughs.

About the Guest

Ted Cohen is Professor in Philosophy, the College, the Committee on Art and Design, and the Committee on General Studies in the Humanities. He received his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1962, the Ph.D. from Harvard in 1972, and has taught at the University of Chicago since 1967. Cohen works mainly in the philosophy of art. Among his recent publications are the book Jokes, and the essays, "Identifying with Metaphor," "Metaphor, Feeling, and Narrative," and "Three Problems in Kant's Aesthetics." His CV is available here.

Listening Notes

Most people would agree that laughter and humor are necessary and valuable forms of human expression. After all, what would life be like without humor? Are there philosophical theories of humor? There are some. Kant, as John explains, has a rather absurd theory of humor that he finds particularly interesting if not in the least convincing. According to John, Kant's theory is so entertaining because he backs it up with a few jokes. Of course, as Ken remarks, Kant telling a joke is humor in itself.

Where do we start, or where should we start, a serious philosophical inquiry into humor? Perhaps humor is objective. Perhaps there is a right or wrong answer to the question of whether a joke is funny or not. But if I think a joke is funny and you don't, does that make one of us right and the other wrong? It could be the case that, just like the taste of applesauce, the question of whether or not it's good is subjective. John points out that, however strange Kant's theory may be, it tends to rightly claim that humor is subjective.

Looking at Kant, Freud, and others, it seems that one of the problems with the theories they put forward about humor is their lack of familiarity with the data. That is, they have bad jokes or, more precisely, they don't know what a good joke is. Naturally, as guest Ted Cohen puts it, it would be a miracle of their theories turned out right. Cohen wrote a book in which he argued that there is no theory of jokes. Some people find some jokes funny; other people don't find the same jokes funny. What you can speak to is the types of jokes people find funny and how those jokes work in getting people to laugh. But beyond that, there doesn't seem to be much to say.

• Conundrum (Seek To 00:53:05): This time, it's our own Nicole Sawaya calling in with a perplexing question. Why would somebody pay for something that they could get for free? Say I can get something for free that wasn't free to make, produce, or construct. Is it right for me not to make a contribution?

Additional Resources

• An encyclopedia entry providing an introduction and definition of aesthetics

• A site discussing the role gender plays in humor and joke telling.

• An article discussing the nature of laughter in a Christian context

• Humor Philosophically Speaking (links to all types of philosophical fun.)

• Other articles and texts:
  • David Benatar.  "Prejudice in Jest: When Racial and Gender Humor Harms."  Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2 (April 1999) pp. 191-203.

   

  • Conal Condren.  "Between Social Constraint and the Public Sphere: On Misreading Early-Modern Political Satire."  Contemporary Political Theory.  Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 2002) pp. 79-101.

   

  • Simon Critchley.  On Humour.  (Routledge 2002).

   

  • Berys Gaut. "Just Joking: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Humor."  Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 22, No. 1 (April 1998) pp. 51-68.

   

  • Donald Hanks.  "Self-Deprecating Humor in Relation to Laughter."  Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. 23, No. 5-6 (September-December 2001) pp. 29-33.

   

  • J. Harvey.  "Humor as Social Act: Ethical Issues."  Journal of Value Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 1995) pp. 19-30.

   

  • Linda Hutcheon.  Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony.  (Routledge 1994).

   

  • Jo Anna Isaak.  Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Laughter.  (Routledge 1996).

   

  • M. A. Screech.  Laughter at the Foot of the Cross. (Penguin 1999).

   

  • Brian K. Soderquist.  "Irony and Humor in Kierkegaard's Early Journals: Two Responses to an Emptied World."  Kiergegaard Studies, (2003) pp. 143-167.

   

  • Michael P. Wolf.  "A Grasshopper Walks into a Bar: The Role of Humour in Normativity."  Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Spring 2002) pp. 331-344.