Stephen Colbert and Philosophy - Aaron Allen Schiller [148]
Special Status in Ethics
Explaining Moral Doubt
Chapter 3 - Things that Make You Go “What?”
To Avoid Begging the Question, Don’t Ask Questions!
Giving Everyone the Chance to Agree with You
Truthseeking in the No Fact Zone: Helping You Spread the Message of Me
Systematically Anti-Systematic: He Said, She Said, Enough Said
Hundred Percent Hypo -Analytical: Don’t Like It? Label It!
Anti-Judicious: Giving You the Chance to See Why You’re Wrong
Under-Confidence in Reason: Once It’s Easier Said, then It’s Done
Chapter 4 - Philosophy at Play
Play and Seriousness
Politics, Play, and the End of Life
Sin, Play, and the “Synagogues of Satan”
Chapter 5 - No Need for the Wordinistas at Webster’s
The Meaningness of Terms
Senseness and Nonsenseness
Paul Grice’s Implicature
Colbert Examplality
Implicature and Humorosity
Original Wordality
Conclestions
SECOND SEGMENT - The ThreatDown: Truthiness
Chapter 6 - Truth, Truthiness, and Bullshit for the American Voter
The Gut and the Heart
Just the Facts, Ma’am
The Politics of Bullshit
The Truthiness of the Vote
Wishing and Dogmatism
Chapter 7 - Truthiness of the Appearances
Do You Know the Stuff You Think You Know? No!
Better Know a Skeptic: A Four-Part Series
Pyrrhonian Skepticism: Belief Is Undesirable
Modern Skepticism: Knowledge Is Impossible
Indian Skepticism: Concepts of Knowledge Are Incoherent
Political Skepticism: American Democracy Inaction
Stephen Colbert: Skeptic, Smart-Ass, or Both?
Skeptical Politics: Where’s the Commitment?
Truthiness of the Appearances
It-Getting: The Truth about Truthiness
Chapter 8 - The WØRD: Fearless Speech and the Politics of Language
“The WØRD”: Parrhesia
Free Speech Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Talking Is a Gateway to Thinking
Speaking from the Gut
American Democracy, Mass Media, and the Politics of Language
Media Culpa
“The WØRD”: Reading Between the Lines
An Out of Control “Fact Insurgency”
But Does Political Satire Promote Democratic Values?
Chapter 9 - Philosophy in the Age of Truthiness
The Age of Truthiness: How Did We Get Here?
How Do You Sell a Mediocre Product?
Advertising and the Avoidance of Reason
Contemporary Politics
Elitism
Having the Right to Believe Doesn’t Mean that Your Belief is Right
Objectivity
The Coming of the Gasbags
Intuition
Philosophy in the Age of Truthiness
THIRD SEGMENT - Better Know a Philosopher
Chapter 10 - Is Stephen Colbert America’s Socrates?
Socrates the Social Critic
Writing on the Walls of the Cave
Colbert’s War on Truthiness
Colbert Is (the Tragedy and Comedy of) America, and So Are We
Chapter 11 - Why Is Stephen Colbert So Funny?
Café au Laugh
Three Overused, Outdated, and Overrun Philosophical Theories of Humor
That Quirky Philosopher Wittgenstein and his Language Games
A Robust, Rotund, and Rofound Philosophy of Humor
There Are Forms, and then There Are Forms of Life
Humorous Altitude, Aptitude, and Attitude
Avowal, not an Owl
Chapter 12 - Where Id Was, There Stephen Colbert Shall Be!
Colbert’s Id-ish Improv and Irony
Balancing the Balls
Talk Dirty to Me: Tell Me You Want My Geneva Conventions
Colbert Catharsis
Give the Id a Chance
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Absurd
Ironic Inquisition
ThreatDown: Taming the Bear Within
Moving On
Chapter 13 - Why Mr. Colbert Should Be President
Why They Try to Keep Our Man Down
Nietzsche’s Super-Man Philosophy
The Sheep (aka The South Carolina Democratic Executive Council)
What Mr. Colbert Got Right and Nietzsche Got Wrong
Why Christianity Is Tougher than All Those Other Religions
What Mr. Colbert Has Taught Us (Besides Everything)
FINAL SEGMENT - What Stephen Colbert Tells Us about Being America
Chapter 14 - Colorblindness and Black Friends in Stephen Colbert’s America
People Tell Me I’m White
Some of My Best Friends Are Black
Stephen’s License to Offend
Claiming Rights, Shirking Responsibilities