Irony

Irony is a juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, irony has also come to assume a metaphysical significance with implications for one's attitude towards life.

The concept originated in ancient Greece, where it described a dramatic character who pretended to be less intelligent than he actually was in order to outwit boastful opponents. Over time, irony evolved from denoting a form of deception to, more liberally, describing the deliberate use of language to mean the opposite of what it says for a rhetorical effect intended to be recognized by the audience.

Due to its double-sided nature, irony is a powerful tool for social bonding among those who share an understanding. For the same reason, it is also a source of division, sorting people into insiders and outsiders depending upon whether they are able to see the irony.

In the nineteenth-century, philosophers began to expand the rhetorical concept of irony into a broader philosophical conception of the human condition itself. For instance, Friedrich Schlegel saw irony as an expression of always striving toward truth and meaning without ever being able to fully grasp them. Søren Kierkegaard maintained that ironic awareness of our limitations and uncertainties is necessary to create a space for authentic human existence and ethical choice.

Irony comes from the Greek eironeia and dates back to the 5th century BCE. This term itself was coined in reference to a stock-character from Old Comedy (such as that of Aristophanes) known as the eiron, who dissimulates and affects less intelligence than he has—and so ultimately triumphs over his opposite, the alazon, a vain-glorious braggart.

Although initially synonymous with lying, in Plato's depiction of Socrates, eironeia came to acquire a new sense of "an intended simulation which the audience or hearer was meant to recognise". More simply put, it came to acquire the general definition, "the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect".

Until the Renaissance, the Latin ironia was considered a part of rhetoric, usually a species of allegory, along the lines established by Cicero and Quintilian near the beginning of the 1st century CE. Irony entered the English language as a figure of speech in the 16th century with a meaning similar to the French ironie, itself derived from the Latin.

Around the end of the 18th century, irony takes on another sense, primarily credited to Friedrich Schlegel and other participants in what came to be known as early German Romanticism. They advance a concept of irony that is not a mere "artistic playfulness", but a "conscious form of literary creation", typically involving the "consistent alternation of affirmation and negation". No longer just a rhetorical device, on their conception, it refers to an entire metaphysical stance on the world.