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(2014) Humor, laughter and human flourishing, Dordrecht, Springer.
Learning to laugh at Ourselves
humor, self-transcendence, and the cultivation of moral virtues
Mordechai Gordon
pp. 87-100
The last chapter examines some important connections between humor, self-transcendence, and the development of moral virtues. I begin my analysis by examining the way in which the Superiority theory and other accounts of humor explain the phenomenon of laughing at others. In the next part of this chapter, I take a close look at the characteristics and benefits of the type of humor that we use when we makes fun of ourselves. I then turn my attention to exploring the relationship between laughing at ourselves, self-transcendence, and a number of moral virtues. In the final part of this chapter, I briefly examine what might happen to the quality of educational encounters when teachers become more comfortable with laughing at themselves. I argue that teachers' sense of humor can not only help them cope with the multiple challenges they face but also mitigate the tendency of some educators to lose hope and become burnt-out.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00834-9_7
Full citation:
Gordon, M. (2014). Learning to laugh at Ourselves: humor, self-transcendence, and the cultivation of moral virtues, in Humor, laughter and human flourishing, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 87-100.
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