Absurdity, incongruity and laughter

Bob Plant

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus recommends scornful defiance in the face of our absurd, meaningless existence. Although Nagel agrees that human life possesses an absurd dimension, he objects to Camus’ existentialist ‘dramatics’. For Nagel, absurdity arises from the irreducible tension between our subjective and objective perspectives on life. In this paper I do two things: (i) critically reconstruct Camus’ and Nagel's positions, and (ii) develop Nagel's critique of Camus in order to argue that humour is an appropriate response to absurdity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)111-134
Number of pages24
JournalPhilosophy
Volume84
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2009

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