Is a sense of humour a virtue?
نویسندگان
چکیده
Is a sense of humour a virtue? In an informal sense of the term ‘virtue’, of course it is. A sense of humour is a trait nobody wants to be thought of as lacking, and one that we value in partners, friends and colleagues alike. But the claim that a sense of humour is a moral virtue seems far more controversial. Yet in a fascinating article, just this claim has been advanced by Robert C. Roberts, who relates it to the further claim that there are figures, such as Socrates and Tolstoy, “whose wisdom was partially constituted by a sense of humour”. Now, if it is right that certain forms of wisdom are partially constituted by the possession of a certain sense of humour, then it is a likely corollary that the development of such wisdom goes hand in hand with the development of such a sense of humour. In which case, the development of such a sense of humour would be a significant dimension of moral education, understood as a training in the virtues.
منابع مشابه
Effect of humour on burnout and resiliency of nurses
Introduction: Nursing is among most stressful jobs and a common syndrome is job burnout in nurses caused by stress. Enhancing coping capacity is an effective factor in dealing with stresses. Thus it seems significant to study the effect of sense of humour on job burnout and nurses’ resiliency. Objective: The present study was conducted to determie the relationship between severity of nurs...
متن کاملVirtue in Machiavelli’s Political Thought
The interpretability of Machiavelli’s political thought relates, in the most part, to the concept of virtue and its dimensions. In Western thought, this concept has had continuity and has reached the Renaissance and Machiavelli’s times. In the Roman and Medieval tradition, philosophical, verbal, religious and even literary and historical approaches were dominant in the clarification and explana...
متن کاملHumour and the young child A review of the research literature
The most challenging aspect to humour research is in defining exactly what it means to “have a sense of humour”. Does it mean an ability to create or respond to jokes and other overtly funny events or stories? Or is it something larger and less specific – perhaps an ability to tolerate difficulties with good grace and strength (Vejleskov, 2001)? Is a “sense of humour” a single trait or one with...
متن کامل[Sense of humour in patients with depression--review].
In recent years there has been increasingly emphasised the importance of developing a sense of humour in patients with depression, which is considered an important competence promoting recovery processes and preventing relapse. Research on the sense of humour in depression focuses on two main areas. The first one concerns the answer to the question whether depressed patients are able to make us...
متن کاملRelationship of humour to health: a psychometric investigation.
The effects of humour on health were investigated using a sample of 504 individuals comprising three groups (community group, university students, and respondents with a medical condition). Hypotheses were: (1). that after controlling for other variables, humour would be significantly associated with health: (2). that individuals with a greater sense of humour would report significantly higher ...
متن کامل