The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News Story True Alleges Indignant Area Professor

by Sharon M. Kaye

Overview

The Onion, with its unique brand of deadpan satirical humor, has become a familiar part of the American scene. The newspaper has a readership of over a million, and reaches millions more with its spin-off books and Onion News Network.
The Onion has shown us that standard ways of thinking about the news have their grotesque and silly side, and this invites philosophical examination. Twenty-one philosophers were commissioned to provide witty philosophical perspectives on just what makes the Onion so truthful and insightful. Former Governor Sarah Palin reported: “I just couldn’t put it down. The Onion and Philosophy is the most exciting book I’ve read since Principia Mathematica.”
Are the Onion writers truly cynical, or just cynically faking it? Does the Onion really have a serious point of view on religion? On sex? On politics? Who cares what Area Man thinks? If everyone’s so dumb, how come so many Onion readers keep on laughing at how dumb they are?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812697247
Publisher:	Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/22/2010
Series:	Popular Culture and Philosophy , #54
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sharon M. Kaye is Professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. She is the author of several books, including Critical Thinking (Oneworld Press, 2009), Medieval Philosophy (Oneworld Press, 2008), and Black Market Truth (Parmenides Publishing, 2008), co-author of several books, including Philosophy for Teens (Prufrock Press, 2006) and More Philosophy for Teens (Prufrock Press, 2007),and editor of Lost and Philosophy (Blackwell, 2007).

Table of Contents

For Crying Out Loud Sharon M. Kaye ix

Science and Technology 1

1 A Vice Worse than Stupidity Sharon M. Kaye 3

2 Pope Admits: "God Ain't Said Shit to Me" Roberto Ruiz 15

3 Is My Kid Sitting Too Close to His Robot? Luke Cuddy 33

Opinion 39

4 Fuck You, You Fucking Fuck Robert Arp 41

5 What It Is to Be an Asshole Christopher Hallquist 53

6 God versus The Onion Greg Littmann 63

Politics 77

7 Philosophers Interested In Area Man But Not In Gay Way David Benatar 79

8 Would Diogenes Have Read The Onion? Rick Bayan 87

9 There's Something Queer about The Onion Mimi Marinucci 99

World 111

10 The Daily Form Deborah Brown Damien Ledwich Robert Whyte 113

11 Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell Randall E. Auxier 119

12 Existential Times Paul Loader 131

Business 145

13 Sarcastic Bastards, Useless Bullshit, and Murder Dan Miori 146

14 The Green Onion Matthew C. Altman 159

Local 175

15 Area Man Realizes Error of Ways after Reading Onion Article Noah Levin 177

16 Guy In Philosophy Class Needs To Shut The Fuck Up Matt Laubenthal 185

News Archive 195

17 Area God Hospitalized, Slowly Dying David Kyle Johnson 197

18 Peeling the Layers of Truth Gregory D. Gilson 209

19 Candide's Legacy Douglas Ficek 219

Entertainment 231

20 Fake News Story Not True Andrew Terjesen 233

21 A Philosophical Joke Book? Thomas J. Brommage 247

22 Liar, Liar Cynthia McWilliams 257

America's Finest Philosophers 267

Index of Onion Articles Mentioned in This Book 273

Inside The Onion and Philosophy 283