Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
Should the philosopher discourage laughter? Simon Critchley is suspicious of it, but Foucault found laughter at every revelation. Plato disliked it intensely, and Hobbes, ambiguously, described it thus :
Quote:
|
“Laughter. Sudden glory, is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter; and is caused either by some act of their own, that pleaseth them; or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves” (Leviathan 52).
|
|
I think it has it's place in philosophy, and it certainly has it's place in life. Points made with humor are always easier remembered than those delivered without embellishment. Voltaire was notorious for his use of it. It was said that Kant had a sharp sense of humor in private, although the only "joke" to appear in his philosophical writings was when he said something about how young men always see their potential mates as being perfect; a condition remedied by marriage. (Forgive me; I'm paraphrasing from memory, which we've already said was a poor practice.) And there's no telling how many people have become interested in philosophy from hearing or reading the witticisms of Woody Allen on the subject.
Even the Bible contains instances of humor, and the most philosophical of its books acknowledges that there is "a time to laugh" (Ecclesiastes 3:4), although the author of that book claims that sorrow is of more benefit. (Eccl. 7:3 KJV: Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.)