The anatomy of boredom /

"The Anatomy of Boredom offers a comprehensive examination of boredom-a ubiquitous, important, yet often misunderstood dimension of human existence. It explores boredom's elaborate history, provides a systematic presentation of the diverse literature on the subject, examines boredom's...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Elpidorou, Andreas (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover
  • Title page
  • Copyright page
  • Dedication page
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Cover
  • Introduction: Painful Thoughts
  • Part I The Unity of Boredom
  • 1 The Meaning of ""Boredom''
  • 1.1 What is a kind?
  • 1.2 Potent kinds
  • 1.3 Boredom's functional potency
  • 1.4 The functional account: An overview
  • Excursus on boredom's evolutionary origins
  • 2 The Birth of Boredom
  • 2.1 The need for clarity
  • 2.2 Finding our focus
  • 2.3 How not to argue for emergence
  • 2.4 The threat of ahistoricity
  • 2.5 A functional history of boredom
  • 2.6 Whence boredom?
  • Excursus on suicidal ennui
  • Excursus on boredom as a phenomenological mood
  • 3 Varieties of Boredom
  • 3.1 A taxonomy of boredom
  • 3.2 The issue of arousal: How not to divide boredom
  • 3.3 Beyond arousal
  • 3.4 Unity through function
  • Part II The Workings of Boredom
  • 4 The Character of Boredom
  • 4.1 The experience of boredom
  • 4.2 Boredom's regulatory import
  • 4.3 Functional inputs and outputs
  • 4.4 Reflections on the functional model
  • 5 Boredom as Cognitive Allostasis
  • 5.1 Introducing the allostatic view
  • 5.2 The basics of homeostasis
  • 5.3 Allostasis: A need for a predictive mode of regulation
  • 5.4 Putting the pieces together
  • 5.5 Boredom and cognitive engagement
  • 5.6 Explaining boredom
  • Excursus on boredom and AI
  • Part III The Significance of Boredom
  • 6 Boredom and the Good Life
  • 6.1 Boredom proneness and flourishing
  • 6.2 Boredom proneness and lack of care
  • 6.3 The (potentially) good of boredom
  • Excursus on eternal boredom
  • 7 The Sociology of Boredom
  • 7.1 Boredom's duality: Early sociological treatments of boredom
  • 7.2 The social grounds of boredom
  • 7.3 Functional responses to the sociality of boredom
  • 7.4 Neoliberalism's broken promises
  • Excursus on the lull of neoliberalism and the political power of boredom
  • 8 The Injustice of Boredom
  • 8.1 Social class
  • 8.2 Boredom and poverty: A proposed interactionist model
  • 8.3 From poverty to boredom
  • 8.4 Poverty and the experience of boredom
  • 8.5 Responses to boredom in poverty
  • 9 Animal Boredom
  • 9.1 A functional answer to the question of animal boredom
  • 9.2 Evidence for animal boredom
  • 9.3 Assessing animal boredom
  • 9.4 The ramifications
  • Conclusion: The Aesthetics of Boredom
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index