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An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., "this encyclopedia article is absurd."[1] It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence irrational.[2] The Latin surdus means "deaf", implying stupidity.[1] Absurdity is contrasted with seriousness in reasoning.[3] In general usage, absurdity may be synonymous with ridiculousness and nonsense. In specialized usage, absurdity is related to extremes in bad reasoning or pointlessness in reasoning; ridiculousness is related to extremes of incongruous juxtaposition, laughter, and ridicule; and nonsense is related to a lack of meaningfulness.
Psychology
Psychologists study how humans adapt to constant absurdities in life.[9]
Absurdity in advertisement
Absurdity is used in advertising, where it has been found to moderate negative attitudes toward products and increase product recognition.[10]
Doctrine of absurdity
The doctrine of absurdity refers to any strict interpretation of something to the point of violating common sense, e.g., following religious dictates, such as in pharisaism (emphasizing or observing the something's exact rules or words, but not its spirit).[11][12][13]
The absurdity doctrine, also known as the "Scrivner's Error" exception, is a legal theory under which American courts have interpreted statutes contrary to their plain meaning in order to avoid absurd legal conclusions.[14][15][16] It is contrasted with [17] "The common sense of man approves the judgment mentioned by Pufendorf [sic. Puffendorf], that the Bolognian law which enacted 'that whoever drew blood in the streets should be punished with the utmost severity', did not extend to the surgeon who opened the vein of a person that fell down in the street in a fit. The same common sense accepts the ruling, cited by Plowden, that the statute of 1st Edward II, which enacts that a prisoner who breaks prison shall be guilty of a felony, does not extend to a prisoner who breaks out when the prison is on fire 'for he is not to be hanged because he would not stay to be burnt'."[18]
Theology
"I believe because it is absurd" Tertullian Absurdity is cited as a basis for some theological reasoning about formation of belief and faith, such as in fideism, an epistemological theory that reason and faith may be hostile to each other. The statement "Credo quia absurdum" ("I believe because it is absurd") is attributed to Tertullian from De Carne Christi, as translated by philosopher Voltaire.[20] According to the New Advent Church, what Tertullian actually says in DCC 5 is "... the Son of God died; it is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd."[21] In the 15th century, the Spanish theologian Tostatus used what he thought was a reduction to absurdity arguing against a spherical earth using dogma, arguing that a spherical earth would imply the existence of antipodes, which would be impossible since this would require either that Christ to appeared twice, or that the inhabitants of the antipodes would be forever damned, which he claimed was an absurdity.[citation needed] Andrew Willet grouped absurdities with "flat contradictions to scripture" and "heresies".[22]
History
Absurdity has been used throughout western history regarding foolishness and extremely poor reasoning to form belief.[23]
Ancient Greece
In Aristophenes' 5th century BC comedy The Wasps, his protagonist Philocleon learned the "absurdities" of Aesop's Fables, considered to be unreasonable fantasy, and not true.[24] Plato often used "absurdity" to describe very poor reasoning, or the conclusion from adopting a position that
is false and reasoning to a false conclusion, called an "absurdity" (argument by reductio ad absurdum). Plato describes himself as not using absurd argumentation against himself in Parmenides.[25] In Gorgias, Plato refers to an "inevitable absurdity" as the outcome of reasoning from a false assumption.[26] Aristotle rectified an irrational absurdity in reasoning with empiricism using likelihood, "once the irrational has been introduced and an air of likelihood imparted to it, we must accept it in spite of the absurdity.[27] He claimed that absurdity in reasoning being veiled by charming language in poetry, "As it is, the absurdity is veiled by the poetic charm with which the poet invests it But in the Epic poem the absurdity passes unnoticed."[27]
discussed the two concepts as different, in that absurdity is viewed as having to do with invalid reasoning, [30][31] while ridiculousness has to do with laughter, superiority, and deformity.[32][33][34]
See also
Illogical Nonsense Non sequitur (literary device)
References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. ^ a b Webster's Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/absurd?show=0&t=1296966875) ^ Wordreference.com (http://www.wordreference.com/definition/absurdities) ^ Thesaurus.com (http://thesaurus.com/browse/laughable) ^ "Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Between Evidence and Absurdity", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 52, Number 2, Spring 2009, pp. 289303, Edzard Ernst ^ "Propagation of the Absurd: demarcation of the Absurd revisited", Wallace Sampson, Kimball Atwood IV, The Medical Journal of Australia, 183 (11/12) ^ Wonderland Revisited, Harry Levin (http://www.jstor.org/pss/4334590) ^ "to justify this 'absurdity' is the primordial object of this note", Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges, p. 39, [1] (http://books.google.com/books?id=wtPxGztYx-UC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=Borges+Absurdity&source=bl& ots=yyqv5MUbM8&sig=6wj59dP1zrXuD1kparLFIOpFkDY&hl=en&ei=975VTbTSC4WosQOH2rH4BQ& sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false) ^ "On the Absurdity of Kafka's Works from Transformer", G Yan-li, Journal of Yunyang Teachers College, 2008 ^ The psychology of adaptation to absurdity: tactics of make-believe, by Seymour Fisher, Rhoda Lee Fisher, [2] (http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kejcgoDXJDwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=absurdity& ots=eKERP2kuuX&sig=ZpvYE8ZEzNwRGsxY_lT1nuopN9Q#v=onepage&q&f=false) ^ "Effects of Absurdity in Advertising: The Moderating Role of Product Category Attitude and the Mediating Role of Cognitive Responses", Journal of Advertising, 2000, Leopold Arias-Bolzmann, Goutam Chakraborty, John C. Mowen, [3] (http://www.jstor.org/pss/4189133) ^ "Pharisaic", Your Diciontionary.com (http://www.yourdictionary.com/pharisaic) ^ "It was Pharisaic in its ritualism and asceticism proclaiming a doctrine of absurdity to the enlightened pagan", The Churches of the New Testament, George W. McDaniel, 1921 ^ Your Dictionary.com (http://www.yourdictionary.com/pharisaic) ^ The Absurdity Doctrine, Harvard Law Review, John F. Manning, Vol.116, #8, June, 2003, pp. 23872486, [4] (http://www.jstor.org/pss/1342768) ^ Statutory Construction and the "Absurdity Doctrine" or "Scrivener's Error" Exception, Francis G.X. Pileggi, [5] (http://www.delawarelitigation.com/2007/04/articles/chancery-court-updates/statutory-construction-and-theabsurdity-doctrine-or-scriveners-error-exception/) ^ Avoiding Absurdity, Indiana Law Journal, Vol. 81, p. 1001, 2006, Glen Staszewski, [6] (http://papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896310) ^ 44 Am. U. L. Rev. 127 (19941995) Absurdity and the Limits of Literalism: Defining the Absurd Result Principle in Statutory Interpretation, Veronica M Dougherty, [7] (http://heinonline.org /HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/aulr44&div=12&id=&page=) ^ K Mart Copr. V. Cartier, Inc., 486 U.S. 281 (1988) (Scalia concurring in part and dissenting in part), quoting U.S. v. Kirby, 74 U.S. 482, 487 (1868). [8] (http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals& handle=hein.journals/aulr44&div=12&id=&page=) ^ The History of Reduction to Absurdity, Yao-yong, 2006 ^ A Philosophical Dictionary: From the French, Voltaire ^ On the Flesh of Christ, Fathers of the Church, New Advent (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm) ^ The doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome truly represented, John Gother, 1593 ^ Absurdities Websters Timeline Dictionary ^ The Wasps, Parmenides ^ Parmenides, Plato ^ Gorgias, Plato ^ a b Aristotle in Poetics, S.H. Butcher ^ The Essays of Michel De Montaigne, Michel de Montaigne name ^ Essays, Francis Bacon ^ a b Martinich, Aloysius (1995), Hobbes Dictionary, Blackwell page 27, citing Leviathan 5.7. ^ a b Leviathan, Chapter V (http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt& staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=585&layout=html#chapter_89826) .
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32. ^ The Perception of Humor, Willibald Ruch, Emotions, qualia, and consciousness, Biocybernetics, VOl. 10 33. ^ How Many Feminists Does It Take To Make A Joke? Sexist Humor and What's Wrong With It, Memo Bergmann, Hypatia, Vol.1, Issue 1, March 1986 34. ^ Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication, JC Meyer, Communication Theory, Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 310331, August 2000 35. ^ Wittgensteinian Accounts of Moorean Absurdity, Philosophical Studies, Volume 92, Number 3, John N. Williams, [9] (http://www.springerlink.com/content/t77l87484l2860mu/) 36. ^ A Constructive Approach to Testing Model Transformations, Theory and Practice of Model Transformations, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010, Volume 6142/2010, 77-92, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13688-7_6 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-642-13688-7_6) , Camillo Fiorentini, Alberto Momigliano, Mario Ornaghi, Iman Poernomo, [10] (http://www.springerlink.com/content/n572730744340m56/) 37. ^ Classical harmony, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, Volume 27, Number 4 (1986), 459-482, Alan Weir 38. ^ Logic, methodology and philosophy of science: Proceedings, Patrick Suppes [11] (http://books.google.com /books?id=QUgmsMm5LcAC&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=Absurdity+constant+Suppes&source=bl& ots=xkoEeQ8WGF&sig=9S55s11JoR22Pov8IGBHV7qKhXA&hl=en&ei=Eh9kTa_ZDo-ssAPoksygCQ& sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#)
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