Laughing at Nothing : Humor as a Response to Nihilism

by Marmysz, John

• ISBN13: 9780791458396
• ISBN10: 0791458393
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Explores the concept of nihilism and argues that it need not imply despair, but can be responded to positively. Disputing the common misconception that nihilism is wholly negative and necessarily damaging to the human spirit. John Marmysz offers a clear and complete definition to argue that it is compatible, and indeed preferably responded to, with an attitude of good humor. He carefully scrutinizes the phenomenon of nihilism as it appears in the works, lives, and actions of key figures in the history of philosophy, literature, politics, and theology, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Camus, and Mishima. While suggesting that there ultimately is no solution to the problem of nihilism, Marmysz proposes a way of utilizing the anxiety and despair that is associated with the problem as a spur toward liveliness, activity, and the celebration of life.

Author Biography

John Marmysz teaches Philosophy at Corning Community College

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,	vii
INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM OF NIHILISM,	1	(14)
PART I SCRUTINIZING NIHILISM
CHAPTER ONE GERMAN AND RUSSIAN NIHILISM,	15	(6)
German Nihilism,	15	(2)
Russian Nihilism,	17	(4)
CHAPTER TWO NIETZSCHEAN NIHILISM,	21	(22)
The Christian, the Anarchist, and Socrates,	22	(2)
Apollo and Dionysus,	24	(3)
Healthy Culture and the Well-Ordered Society,	27	(3)
Ascent, Decline, and the Eternal Return of the Same,	30	(4)
Heidegger and Nietzsche,	34	(9)
CHAPTER THREE WORLD-WAR AND POSTWAR NIHILISM,	43	(18)
The National Socialists,	44	(2)
Camus and the Existentialists,	46	(4)
Yukio Mishima and Asian Nihilism,	50	(5)
Nihilism in America,	55	(6)
CHAPTER FOUR NIHILISTIC INCONGRUITY,	61	(30)
The Descriptive, Normative, and Fatalistic Premises of Nihilism,	68	(6)
The Historical Complication,	74	(4)
Pyrrho, Stirner, Rorty, and Skeptical Pragmatism,	78	(13)
PART II DECLINE, ASCENT, AND HUMOR
CHAPTER FIVE DECLINE, DECAY, AND FALLING AWAY,	91	(14)
CHAPTER SIX AMBITION, ASPIRATION, AND ASCENT,	105	(18)
CHAPTER SEVEN HUMOR AND INCONGRUITY,	123	(32)
Jokes,	136	(2)
Comedy,	138	(3)
Humor,	141	(14)
CONCLUSION HUMOR AS A RESPONSE TO NIHILISM,	155	(12)
POSTSCRIPT,	167	(6)
NOTES,	173	(22)
BIBLIOGRAPHY,	195	(8)
INDEX,	203