Winner of the Nightboat Books Prize for Poetry

Ancient philosophers were very interested in questions about laughter, humor and comedy. They theorized about laughter and its causes, moralized about the appropriate uses of humor and what it is appropriate to laugh at, and wrote treaties on comedic composition. This volume explores themes that were important for ancient philosophers: the psychology of laughter, the ethical and social norms governing laughter and humor, and the philosophical uses of humor and comedic technique.

Provides an accessible account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius.

One book that’s been lurking in the back of my mind for a long time is a book about sex. You see, abort forty years ago while I was going through a painful divorce, I decided to teach a course called “Philosophy of Sex” at my university. My other favorite philosopher Wittgenstein once said to his student:“ What is the use of studying philosophy if all that does for you is to enable you to talk with some plausibility about some abstruse questions of logic, etc., and if it does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday life?” Other than the food, is there anything more significant to everyday life than sex? Yet, philosophers rarely discuss sex as a philosophical topic. I tried to apply my philosophical skills to help myself think clearly about the male-female relationships while living them. Over the years I have formed my own philosophy of sex and seriously contemplated writing a philosophical book, following my course outline with the title, “Thinking About Sex”. But such a book would be too didactic and boring. My recent writings convinced me that I write best when I let my thoughts range freely, and do not try to organize them into a set form. So there won’t be a table of contents or chapter divisions in this book. What follows are my sexual reminiscences interjected with my philosophizing about them. The events described are real, and the persons involved are real, but with names changed. Some parts of it may sound to some people like pornography, but it is actually a philosophy book. A great contemporary philosopher Noam Chomsky said,“ The job of a philosopher is to tell the truth and to expose lies.” That’s what I am trying to do. Another great philosopher Karl Marx said,“ Philosophers hitherto have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point, however, is to change it.” I am also trying to do that. This is not just a memoir, but I meant it to be a subversive track. I wish to subvert the status quo of our sexual mores. In fact, I meant this to be a Manifesto of Sexual Liberation!

In this work, Santayana analyzes the nature of the knowing process and demonstrates by means of clear, powerful arguments how we know and what validates our knowledge. The central concept of his philosophy is found in a careful discrimination between the awareness of objects independent of our perception and the awareness of essences attributed to objects by our mind, or between what Santayana calls the realm of existents and the realm of subsistents. Since we can never be certain that these attributes actually inhere in a substratum of existents, skepticism is established as a form of belief, but animal faith is shown to be a necessary quality of the human mind. Without this faith there could be no rational approach to the necessary problem of understanding and surviving in this world. Santayana derives this practical philosophy from a wide and fascinating variety of sources. He considers critically the positions of such philosophers as Descartes, Euclid, Hume, Kant, Parmenides, Plato, Pythagoras, Schopenhauer, and the Buddhist school as well as the assumptions made by the ordinary man in everyday situations. Such matters as the nature of belief, the rejection of classical idealism, the nature of intuition and memory, symbols and myth, mathematical reality, literary psychology, the discovery of essence, sublimation of animal faith, the implied being of truth, and many others are given detailed analyses in individual chapters.

Many of us tend to live as though Jesus represents the "spiritual part" of our lives. We don't clearly see how he relates to the rest of our experiences, desires, and habits. How can Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity become more than a compartmentalized part of our lives? Highly regarded New Testament scholar and popular teacher Jonathan Pennington argues that we need to recover the lost biblical image of Jesus as the one true philosopher who teaches us how to experience the fullness of our humanity in the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us what is good, right, and beautiful and offers answers to life's big questions: what it means to be human, how to be happy, how to order our emotions, and how we should conduct our relationships. This book brings Jesus and Christianity into dialogue with the ancient philosophers who asked the same big questions about finding meaningful happiness. It helps us rediscover biblical Christianity as a whole-life philosophy, one that addresses our greatest human questions and helps us live meaningful and flourishing lives.

Steve Martin has been an international star for over thirty years. Here, for the first time, he looks back to the beginning of his career and charmingly evokes the young man he once was. Born in Texas but raised in California, Steve was seduced early by the comedy shows that played on the radio when the family travelled back and forth to visit relatives. When Disneyland opened just a couple of miles away from home, an enchanted Steve was given his first chance to learn magic and entertain an audience. He describes how he noted the reaction to each joke in a ledger - 'big laugh' or 'quiet' - and assiduously studied the acts of colleagues, stealing jokes when needed. With superb detail, Steve recreates the world of small, dark clubs and the fear and exhilaration of standing in the spotlight. While a philosophy student at UCLA, he worked hard at local clubs honing his comedy and slowly attracting a following until he was picked up to write for TV. From here on, Steve Martin became an acclaimed comedian, packing out venues nationwide. One night, however, he noticed empty seats and realised he had 'reached the top of the rollercoaster'. BORN STANDING UP is a funny and riveting chronicle of how Steve Martin became the comedy genius we now know and is also a fascinating portrait of an era.