Practical irony: Reflections on a theme in the work of Jonathan Lear. (3rd August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thornton, Simon
• Is Part Of: European journal of philosophy. Volume 30:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 840
• Page End: 853
• Publication Date: 2021-08-03
• Subjects: Philosophy -- Periodicals; Philosophy, European -- Periodicals; Philosophy, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 190
• DOI: 10.1111/ejop.12692
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-8373

Abstract

Abstract: In his pioneering work, A Case for Irony (2011) Johnathan Lear has advanced a powerful and novel case in support of Søren Kierkegaard's striking thesis that "no genuinely human life is possible without irony." Lear can be credited for attempting to show not only that irony can play a positive role in living a genuinely human life, but that the role played by irony is genuinely distinctive. However, in this paper, I argue that Lear's use of psychoanalytic theory in making his case for irony is problematic; and I demonstrate that Kierkegaard's own writings contain resources to provide a stronger defense of the stated thesis. In this way, I aim to provide a critical defense of Lear's case for irony by arguing for a return to Kierkegaard in place of psychoanalysis. On my Kierkegaard‐inspired account, the experience of irony erupts as a disciplinary force in cases where an individual's concrete, practical deliberation has been substituted or "swallowed up" by disinterested theoretical contemplation, which has come to function as an uncanny simulacrum of practical deliberation. Here, the experience of irony potentiates a change in thinking.