The Philosophy of Humor (original) (raw)

Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy

Ed. P. Destreé and F. Trivigno, 2019

way. This impression is simply mistaken on at least three counts. First, the ancients theorized about laughter and its causes, they moralized about the appropriate uses of humor and what it is appropriate to laugh at, and they wrote treatises on comedic C0 C0.P1 C0.P2 or playful, and what is trivial. If something is comedic, one might be tempted to think along these lines, then it does not have a serious philosophical purpose and is thus not worthy of serious scholarly attention. This line of thinking is misguided, and we hope to demonstrate with this volume how fruitful and philosophically informative scholarly attention to these passages can be. One of our main motivations for this volume is to give the themes of laughter, humor, and comedy their due, as it were. While volumes on tragedy in ancient philosophy abound, there has unfortunately not comedic technique. How do philosophers typically use humor in their writings? Does the humor play primarily a negative role in criticizing other rivals, or can it play a positive educational role as well? If it can, how does philosophical humor communicate its philosophical content? Our aim with this volume is not to settle these fascinating questions but more modestly to start a conversation about them, and we hope our volume will be a reference point for discussions of laughter, humor, and C0.P3 C0.S1 C0.P4 C0.P5 joker himself may be perceived by the audience as a buffoon. More broadly, laughing at fellow citizens would ultimately destroy the bonds of friendship that hold the polis together. How can one navigate this difficult terrain, and what kind of laughter would be appropriate for a good and socially cohesive city? C0.P9 C0.P10 These community-and friendship-building cases of laughter also have a darker side, as Trapp demonstrates in his analyses of Dio Chrysostom's discourse to the Alexandrians and Plutarch's Life of Antony. According to Trapp, the aim of Dio C0.P12 C0.P13 Discourse The previous section analyzed some ways of dealing with the potential danger of laughter in the ethical and social realms as well as with the moral and social benefits one can get from humor and laughter. This section deals with the usages of humor that nearly all ancient philosophers show in their writings from Plato up to Lucian and Sextus Empiricus, and what role these passages play in communicating with their readers. The two first chapters in this section explore some of the multifaceted humorous devices that we find in Plato's work. Focusing on the figure of Socrates in "Self-Ridicule: Socratic Wisdom," Paul B. Woodruff argues that ridicule, especially C0.S3 C0.P15

Plato on Laughter and Moral Harm

Laughter, Humor and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy, eds. P. Destrée and F. Trivigno, 2019

resents his characters as laughing on numerous occasions. 1 A good deal of this laughter g or derisive-for example, Thrasymachus laughing at Socrates and Adeimantus (Rep. Polus laughing at Socrates (Grg. 473e2), and the crowd laughing at Clinias' helplessne ering Euthydemus' and Dionysodorus' questions (Euthd. 276b7, 276d1). Socrates, who is depicted as laughing, will often refer to absent or imaginary interlocutors, who would t him and his interlocutor(s) were they present-for example, the many laughing at s, Protagoras, and Prodicus (Prot. 355c8) and the absent questioner laughing at Socrate pias (Hipp. maj. 289c1, 291e6-7, 299a1). 2 There are other examples of laughter that do m to fit this competitive or derisive model-the symposiasts' good-natured laughter at des' drunken entrance (Symp. 213a1, 222c1); the group's laughter at the ludicrous scene by everyone's desire to sit next to Charmides (Chrm. 155b9-c1); Cephalus' laughter at rchus' joke about inheriting the argument (Rep. 331d9); and so on. 3 Further, Plato empl niques of comedy in presenting several of Socrates' interlocutors as ridiculous figures, usible to think that we are meant to laugh at them, even if Socrates does not. Consider, e, the presentation of the characters of Ion, Hippias, Euthydemus, and Dionysodorus-e characters is portrayed in ways that employ the techniques of Aristophanic comedy. 4. Trivigno Despite the prevalence of laughter both inside and outside the dialogues, Plato's explici ng about laughter and comedy is mainly critical and focused on particular sorts of r that are presented as morally harmful. This chapter takes up the question of what exac views on the moral harmfulness of these kinds of laughter are, how they are related, and ace there is left over for what we might call "ethically appropriate" laughter. I provide t of Plato's three distinct analyses of the moral harm of laughter: (§1) in Republic 3, s rejects stories of gods being overcome by laughter on the grounds that powerful laugh voke a powerful change in one's condition; (§2) in Republic 10, Socrates charges that , like tragedy, has the power to tempt even those with knowledge to let down their guar augh at jokes that would be inappropriate to tell, thus strengthening the lower part of on d (§3) in the Philebus 48a-50a, Socrates gives a definition of to geloion (the laughable us) in terms of self-ignorance, and he provides an analysis of what I will call "derisive r," on which it indulges an unjust emotion, phthonos ("envy" or "malice"). On the face criticisms seem to have little in common: the first seems focused on powerful or intens r, the second on the seeming harmlessness of laughter in the theater, and the last on the al causes and consequences of derisive laughter. On my reconstruction, these criticism only logically consistent but also mutually supporting. I argue that Republic 10's analys flesh out what is harmful about powerful laughter in Republic 3 and that the emotional

The Ancient Roots of Humor Theory

HUMOR: The International Journal of Humor Research, 2012

Although the philosophers did write much on the offensive nature of jests, which can be considered illustrative of superiority theory, I describe elements of the incongruity and relief theories of humor motivation in their work. There is evidence to suggest that all four philosophers found humor to be a fitting and effective response to certain exigencies. It is more accurate to summarize their views thus: Humor has the potential to be a powerful tool of persuasion, but like any potent weapon (discursive or non-discursive) it should be used with caution.

A Philosophical Analysis of Humor

This is an examination of humor, broken into two sections concerned respectively with what we find funny, and why we find things funny at all. I look at various competing theories, comparing them with each other and testing them against a number of pre-theoretical instances of humor, favoring in the end a version of what has been called 'Incongruity-Resolution Theory'. I also take some first steps towards a tentative phenomenology of humor, which may be expanded upon in the future.

The Rationality of Laughter: Human and Divine, May 2023

Menachem Fisch As a Nussbaumian cognitivist I take emotions to be forms of judgment rather than mere bodily responses. Last year I explained my special interest in reflexive emotions like shame, pride, humility and guilt. Today I wish to make the case for adding comical amusement to the exclusively human list of reflexive emotions, and for viewing it as a form of self-judgment, and a highly rational one at that. **** Lets start with a true, yet probably fictitious anecdote about the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who, at one of his famed Saturday-night classes, is said to have been repeatedly interrupted by two snickering yeshiva lads of a rival denomination. The Rabbi is reputed to have responded by asking them to: "please make an effort to understand the lesson, if not, then to try to restrain yourselves, and if you're incapable of that too, then by all means laugh away, for only so will we know you're human." An ability to follow a complicated argument, to hold ourselves in normative check and to find something funny, are all exclusively human. Yet, like many, the rabbi seems to consider humor the lowest of the three. Humor's relative inferiority has a long history, to which I'll return, but first to what sharply distinguishes it from the other, supposedly superior two-human understanding and normative restraint. First, unlike human understanding and self-restraint, for which one finds considerable rudimentary antecedents in the animal world, our capacity to find something funny (as opposed to enjoyable, or even playful) seems exclusively human and wholly unanticipated by evolution. Second, as Henri Bergson acutely observed, appreciating the comic is not only an exclusive human capacity, but what we deem to be funny "does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly human. A landscape may be beautiful, charming … or insignificant and ugly; it will never be laughable." Only we can appreciate a joke, and what we find funny has always to do with our world.

The Fight of the Comedian: Comedy as the Arena of Philosophical Thought in Society

Open Journal of Philosophy, 2019

Aristophanes describes The Clouds as "the wisest" of his comedies. The choice of wisdom as an attribute of comedy seems strange because the common perception of comedy understands it to be concerned with the absurd and the ridiculous. Wisdom is associated more with philosophy. This paper argues that comedy is an arena for philosophical ideas in society. This paper traces the ancient Greek philosophical fight of Aristophanes and Socrates and its manifestation in the arena of comedy within the two comedies The Clouds and The Cynics' way of life. In this paper, there are also examples from the Egyptian comedian theatre like The Married, Imprison Your Daughters and It Is Truly a Very Respectful Family and the Egyptian comedian media like Al Hudood mock news website. The analysis of these examples supports the claim that comedy is the arena of philosophical thought in different societies and times (not only in ancient Greece). The larger aim of this paper is to examine the philosophical potential of comedy and its effect within the realm of ideas in society.