CONTENTS -- Part One: Introduction -- Part Two: Joking -- Part Three: Laughing -- Part Four: Conclusion -- TABLES -- FOREWORD -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- PART ONE Introduction -- CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION - THE FUN OF HUMOR -- Humor to Be, or ot to Be, a Frog Can -- Humor in Relation to Joking and Laughing -- Joking -- Laughing -- The Theoretical Debate -- The Mental Argument -- The Natural Argument -- The Societal Argument -- The Cultural Argument -- The Metamorphic Argument -- The Metamorphic Theory of Humor -- Theory and Meta-Theory -- The Classification of Theory and Meta-Theory -- A Unified Theory of Everything -- The Logic of Existential Dialectics -- The Conception of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontics) -- The Syntax of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontomethodology and Ontologic) -- The Semantics of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontosemantics) -- The Pragmatics of Existential Dialectics (or Its Ontopragmatics) -- Sophisticated Methodological Holism -- Chapter Outline -- Some Clarifications -- In Conversation with My Previous Books -- Case Studies and Examples -- Detailed Analysis versus Overall Synthesis -- Two Distinctive Features of Using Quotations -- The Use of Neologisms -- PART TWO Joking -- CHAPTER 2. JOKING AND ITS DOUBLE FACES -- The Benignity of Joking -- Joking and the Mind -- Joking, the Mind, and the Psychology of Jokes -- Joking, Black Comedy, and the Question about Human Nature -- Joking and Nature -- Joking, IFF, and the Controversy about Evolution -- Joking and Society -- Joking, and the Politics of Satire -- Joking, Race/Ethnic Humor, and the Power Equation -- Joking and Culture -- Joking, Flatulence Humor, and the Culture of Shifting Blame -- The Techniques of Joking, and the Cultural Factor -- The Malignity of Joking -- PART THREE Laughing -- CHAPTER 3. LAUGHING AND ITS DUAL FACETS.

The Joy of Laughing -- Laughing and the Mind -- Laughing, Health, and the Dark Sides -- Laughing, Therapy, and the Debate in Gelotology -- Laughing and Nature -- Laughing, Animals, and the Contentious Comparison -- Laughing, Animals, and the Evolutionary Claim -- Laughing and Society -- Laughing, and the Dispute about Social Functions -- Laughing and Culture -- Laughing, Writers, and the Role of Intellectual Culture -- Laughing, Death, and the Coverage in Popular Culture -- The Sorrow of Laughing -- PART FOUR Conclusion -- CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION - THE FUTURE OF HUMOR -- Beyond Joking and Laughing -- 1st Thesis: The Absoluteness-Relativeness Principle -- 2nd Thesis: The Predictability-Unpredictability Principle -- 3rd Thesis: The Explicability-Inexplicability Principle -- 4th Thesis: The Preciseness-Vagueness Principle -- 5th Thesis: The Simpleness-Complicatedness Principle -- 6th Thesis: The Openness-Hiddenness Principle -- 7th Thesis: The Denseness-Emptiness Principle -- 8th Thesis: The Slowness-Quickness Principle -- 9th Thesis: The Expansion-Contraction Principle -- 10th Thesis: The Theory-Praxis Principle -- 11th Thesis: The Convention-5ovelty Principle -- 12th Thesis: The Evolution-Transformation Principle -- 13th Thesis: The Symmetry-Asymmetry Principle -- 14th Thesis: The Softness-Hardness Principle -- 15th Thesis: The Seriousness-Playfulness Principle -- 16th Thesis: The Regression-Progression Principle -- 17th Thesis: The Same-Difference Principle -- 18th Thesis: The Post-Human Rendition -- Towards the Post-Human Rendition -- Four Great Future Transformations of Humor -- Enormous Implications -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.