Es una desdicha vivir en el único país del mundo en el que el Virus ataca al paseante solitario en mitad de sus ensoñaciones campestres… Cuando el espacio público está ocupado por necios y regentado por pillos, el sarcasmo y la sátira son la respuesta más adecuada. Todo para enfatizar una cuestión muy simple que se ha perdido de vista: EL DERE…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Un comentario sobre la gestión de la opinión pública durante las protestas del 15-M en 2011. La choza los “Indignados” en la Puerta del Sol se promueve en los medios como el ombligo simbólico del país. Enfatizamos la importancia simbólica de los centros en el condicionamiento de la opinión pública. Aquí tenemos, pues, un monument…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Artículo sobre algunas implicaciones ideológicas de la película ‘Never Let Me Go’ (Mark Romanek, 2010), basada en la novela de Kazuo Ishiguro. Ofrece un retrato de la sociedad como un sistema educativo manipulador, que mantiene a los niños ignorantes de las cosas más importantes que se pueden saber sobre el poder y la expl…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Una reflexión sobre la representación de la resistencia, la resiliencia, y las tácticas totalitarias para domeñar a los disidentes, tal y como se representan en la película polaca ‘El interrogatorio’ (‘Przesluchanie’, dir. Ryszard Bugajski, 1989). La construcción inconsistente de la personalidad de la heroína testifica las dificu…[Read more]

I argue that an indirect and imaginative route through subversive humor offers a means to
raise consciousness about covert oppression and the mechanisms underlying it, reveal the errors
of those with power who complacently sustain systematic oppression, and even open those people
up to changing their minds. Subversive humor confronts serious…[Read more]

It is trivially true that comedians make jokes and thus are not serious; they are “just playing.” But watching Louis CK, especially his performances in Chewed Up, Shameless, and Hilarious, it is evident that he has more in mind than simply getting his audience to frivolously guffaw. I will make the case that this is so given the content of som…[Read more]

In two very influential papers from 2008, Tamar Gendler introduced the concept of “alief” to describe the mental state one is in when acting in ways contrary to their consciously professed beliefs. For example, if asked to eat what they know is fudge, but shaped into the form of dog feces, they will hesitate, and behave in a manner that would be…[Read more]

Was Swift correct that “reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired” (Letter to a Young Gentleman)? If so, what recourse is there to change attitudes especially among those who continue to fervently believe unjustified claims and act upon them in a way that affects other people? I will answer the…[Read more]

According to Manuel Davenport, “The best humorists–Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Bob Hope, and Mort Sahl–share [a] mixture of detachment and desire, eagerness to believe, and irreverence concerning the possibility of certainty. And when they become serious about their convictions–as Twain did about colonialism…they cease to be humorous”. I agree…[Read more]

According to Manuel Davenport, “The best humorists–Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Bob Hope, and Mort Sahl–share [a] mixture of detachment and desire, eagerness to believe, and irreverence concerning the possibility of certainty. And when they become serious about their convictions–as Twain did about colonialism…they cease to be humorous”. I agree…[Read more]

This chapter will focus on the overlap and benefits of a humorous and philosophical attitude toward the world and our place in it. The first part of this chapter’s title borrows from Kierkegaard and before him the Christian apologist Turtullian, who once quipped about the central contradictory tenets of Christianity, in putatively ironic f…[Read more]

The discovery of mirror neurons in both primates and humans has led to an enormous amount of research and speculation as to how conscious beings are able to interact so effortlessly among one another. Mirror neurons might provide an embodied basis for passive synthesis and the eventual process of further communalization through empathy, as…[Read more]

In the first part of this paper, I will briefly introduce the concept of incongruity and its relation to humor and seriousness, connecting the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer and the contemporary work of John Morreall. I will reveal some of the relations between Schopenhauer’s notion of “seriousness” and the existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartr…[Read more]

In this paper I borrow from Maria Lugones’ work on playful ” world-traveling ” and W.E.B. Du Bois’ notion of ” double consciousness ” to make the case that humor can facilitate an openness and cooperative attitude among an otherwise closed, even adversarial audience. I focus on what I call ” subversive ” humor, that which is employed by or on…[Read more]

The majority of philosophers of religion, at least since Plantinga’s reply to Mackie’s logical problem of evil, agree that it is logically possible for an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God to exist who permits some of the evils we see in the actual world. This is conceivable essentially because of the possible world known as heaven.…[Read more]

The majority of philosophers of religion, at least since Plantinga’s reply to Mackie’s logical problem of evil, agree that it is logically possible for an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God to exist who permits some of the evils we see in the actual world. This is conceivable essentially because of the possible world known as heaven.…[Read more]

This is perhaps the world’s first book in which a philosopher himself illustrates his own philosophical investigation into hard problems on time, being, solipsism, and life, in the form of “Manga.” This book was originally published in Japanese in 2013 and translated into English by Robert Chapeskie in 2021.

This is perhaps the world’s first book in which a philosopher himself illustrates his own philosophical investigation into hard problems on time, being, solipsism, and life, in the form of “Manga.” This book was originally published in Japanese in 2013 and translated into English by Robert Chapeskie in 2021.

The Nonassertion Theory of Fiction implies that fictional discourse is quoted discourse. It can stand up against the critique in Walton’s Mimesis as Make-Believe, and avoids the undesirable consequences of that theory. The possibility of hearing music as discursive justifies thinking of (some) music as fiction, against Walton’s reservations.

Spanish abstract: Argumentamos contra la normativa española sobre el uso obligatorio y ubicuo de mascarillas en todos los espacios públicos, incluyendo el aire libre. Denunciamos estas normas y leyes como despóticas, arbitrarias y carentes de base científica, y mostramos cómo su razón de ser se halla tanto en la agenda globalista de los princ…[Read more]