A Case for Irony

by Jonathan Lear

Overview

Vanity Fair has declared the Age of Irony over. Joan Didion has lamented that Obama’s United States is an “irony-free zone." Here Jonathan Lear argues that irony is one of the tools we use to live seriously, to get the hang of becoming human. It forces us to experience disruptions in our habitual ways of tuning out of life, but comes with a cost.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674063143
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/24/2011
Series:	The Tanner lectures on human values
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	292 KB

About the Author

Jonathan Lear is John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Part One: The Lectures 1. To Become Human Does Not Come That Easily 2. Ironic Soul Part Two: Commentary 3. Self-Constitution and Irony 4. Irony, Reflection, and Psychic Unity 5. Psychoanalysis and the Limits of Reflection 6. The Immanence of Irony and the Efficacy of Fantasy 7. Thoughts about Irony and Identity 8. Flight from Irony 9. On the Observing Ego and the Experiencing Ego 10. Observing Ego and Social Voice Notes Commentators Index

What People are Saying About This

Stephen Mulhall

Jonathan Lear's re-reading of the significance of irony for getting the hang of a genuinely human existence is an unheimlich maneuver that brings religion and psychoanalysis into productive conversation with philosophy, and induces characteristically sharp and creative responses from his interlocutors: an exemplary instance of the virtues of the Tanner Lectures format.
— Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford

J. M. Coetzee

Before we can claim to live a truly examined life, says Jonathan Lear, we need to pass the test of ironic self-scrutiny at something approaching the level set by Socrates and Kierkegaard. Following the contours of the subtle case for radical irony Lear makes turns out to be an intellectual adventure in its own right.

JM Coetzee

Before we can claim to live a truly examined life, says Jonathan Lear, we need to pass the test of ironic self-scrutiny at something approaching the level set by Socrates and Kierkegaard. Following the contours of the subtle case for radical irony Lear makes turns out to be an intellectual adventure in its own right.

Editorial Reviews

Lear's book provides intellectual pleasure of a very high order: its distinctions are careful, its prose lucid and elegant, and its examples suggestive and well chosen...You should read this book.

Commonweal - Paul J. Griffiths

Lear performs a valuable service. He shows us just how far the contemporary usage of irony diverges from an older, far more appealing meaning, according to which irony is a portal to self-knowledge.

Wall Street Journal - Andrew Stark

Jonathan Lear's re-reading of the significance of irony for getting the hang of a genuinely human existence is an unheimlich maneuver that brings religion and psychoanalysis into productive conversation with philosophy, and induces characteristically sharp and creative responses from his interlocutors: an exemplary instance of the virtues of the Tanner Lectures format.

Stephen Mulhall

Before we can claim to live a truly examined life, says Jonathan Lear, we need to pass the test of ironic self-scrutiny at something approaching the level set by Socrates and Kierkegaard. Following the contours of the subtle case for radical irony Lear makes turns out to be an intellectual adventure in its own right.

J. M. Coetzee

Lear's book provides intellectual pleasure of a very high order: its distinctions are careful, its prose lucid and elegant, and its examples suggestive and well chosen...You should read this book.
— Paul J. Griffiths

Commonweal

Lear performs a valuable service. He shows us just how far the contemporary usage of irony diverges from an older, far more appealing meaning, according to which irony is a portal to self-knowledge.
— Andrew Stark

Wall Street Journal