Neuss: Bruno Buike 2019 – 58 p. – E23 doublenumber – (dedication-essay for BBWV 137 and 139 – settings for Gipsy violin on “Come Zigany”, Countess Maritza, 1 st movm., by Imre Kalman) -x-contributing to revisiting history of 20th century according to suggestions coming from Joseph P. Farrell, Guido Preparata, Anthony Sutton – b ) introducing into…[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]

Spanish abstract: Un comentario sobre la resistencia al uso de las TICs y las redes sociales disponibles para promover un diálogo abierto y público en la Universidad pública española (más en concreto la de Zaragoza), en el contexto de las reformas de la educación superior en 2005. Y una reflexión sobre las inadecuadas nociones de servicio públic…[Read more]

Russian Abstract: В статье рассматриваются авторские отступления на тему гидрографии Черного моря (Понт Эвксинский) в четвертой книге Всеобщей истории Полибия. Наблюдения греческого историка за влиянием длительного воздействия рек и морских течений на геологические трансформации рельефа сделали его предвестником геологической теории униформиз…[Read more]

Spanish Abstract: Reportaje sobre una jornada interna de presentación al profesorado universitario del programa europeo para la reforma de la Educación Superior en el marco de la reforma española de las viejas titulaciones (2005) de cara al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Se enfatiza el descontento percibido en los nuevos pla…[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]

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]

I argue that the overt subjugation in the system of American slavery and its subsequent effects offer a case study for an existentialist analysis of freedom, oppression and humor. Concentrating on the writings and experiences of Frederick Douglass and the existentialists Simone De Beauvoir and Lewis Gordon, I investigate how the concepts of…[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]

This paper begins by taking seriously former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ response in his What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? to systematic violence and oppression. He claims that direct argumentation is not the ideal mode of resistance to oppression: ” At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.” I…[Read more]

This paper investigates the relationships between forms of humor that conjure up possible worlds and real-world social critiques. The first part of the paper will argue that subversive humor, which is from or on behalf of historically and continually marginalized communities, constitutes a kind of aesthetic experience that can elicit enjoyment…[Read more]

More and more artists from all over the world are engaging in the production of AI art. Because of this, art historians need to start thinking about how the histories of AI art should be articulated. This paper aims to take part in this conversation by addressing the problem of whether the AIs created by human artists should be considered as…[Read more]

A little-known feature of the vast migrant labour system that supplied South Africa’s gold-mining industry was the Deferred Pay Interest Fund. For much of the 20th century, a portion of the wages owed to African mine workers was deferred and remitted to them only at the end of their contracts. This is well-known, but what happened to the i…[Read more]

El lugar de importancia en la historia de la cultura hispánica medieval que ocupan los Claros varones de Castilla (BETA texid 1714) es absolutamente indiscutible. Su autor, Fernando de Pulgar, desde su evidente y marcado “pensamiento literario forjado en el tránsito de la Castilla enriqueña a la isabelina”, es considerado por muchos como el más…[Read more]

Spanish Abstract: Reseña del artículo de José Luis Pardo ‘El futuro de la Universidad Pública’, donde se medita sobre la finalidad social y sentido último de la Universidad como institución, en el contexto de la reforma española de titulaciones emprendida en 2005. ______…[Read more]

Philology haunts the humanities, through both its defendants and its detractors. This article examines the construction of philology as the premier science of the long nineteenth century in Europe. It aims to bring the history of philology up to date by taking it seriously as a science and giving it the kind of treatment that has dominated the…[Read more]