Philosopy of humor?

Question

Have any of the great philosophers dealt with this subject? Its such an important part of our existence, that I completely overlooked it as a subject of deeper inquiry,

What is it fundamentally? How does it work? How does it serve humanity? Can it be destructive? How about creative? What does it do for us? And if you know of any philosophers who have studied this subect, please let me know who they are, in what works they discussed the subject, and summarize their points!

Answer 1

I believe it was Plato who reccomended that every young man ought to be married, if they found the right woman they would be happy the rest of their life, if not, they would become a philosopher :P I forget who said the fastest way to cheer yourself up is to cheer up someone else. Laughter is the thing which makes life endurable through all its hardships and trials. Any great philosopher has spent time one this.

Answer 2

Read The Symposium by Plato. It is a dialogue on the meaning of love and imbibed with the wit of subtle humor.

There is a joke amongst philosophs that one of the prerequisites for being a philosopher is the absence of a sense of humor.

A sense of humor is as individual as there are persons. Some like humor that ridicules; this can be called destructive. The ability to laugh at oneself, however, can carry many a person through hard times. People that laugh more live longer. Laughing improves cardio-vascular.

Your questions led me to the following, which you may find applies to your interest:

http://www.philosophynow.org/archive/articles/25madigan.htm

//Philosophy and Humor

An introduction by Tim Madigan.

"It is worth noting that Wittgenstein once said that a serious and philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes (without being facetious)."
Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir

The above passage is rather ambiguous – does it mean that Wittgenstein said such a thing in a nonfacetious tone, or would the work he is proposing be nonfacetious? (An uncharitable soul might say that Wittgenstein succeeded in writing such a book – Philosophical Investigations.) Such are the types of linguistic analyses which philosophers are prone to engage in, which is no doubt why the profession is often seen as being humorless in the extreme.

Must philosophers be unfacetious? Can one tell a joke without having to also examine what it means? ... //

Answer 3

there was a guy in the news around a decade ago that was given less than 6 months to live, he locked himself in a hotel room with funny movies and laughed himself back to health.

Aristotle considered it to be a part of beauty. Acording to EP several Enlightenment+ philosophers have at least touched on it. I was suprised to find that it wasn't even a topic (or anything related -- like comedy) in the Syntopicon of The Great Ideas.

One philosophical notion is the viewing of it as a release.
How it works seems more a topic for psychology than philosophy?

Answer 4

I think you can read and find some good points in "Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain de Botton. However, your topic is interesting and, presumably, there should be something like 'humorism' since of course we have 'humorists' who write funny, relaxing and inspiring columns or texts for us to read to smile or laugh. Some 10 years ago, the famous 100-year+ magazine 'Punch' in the UK needed to stop publishing for some reasons and it's a pity for its readers.

Answer 5

Humor is one of the fruits of society, it cures a lot of pain, and makes life easier. However, some "humor" is more like verbal or mental abuse towards others. So sometimes there is a fine line on the benefits of humor towards society. For example Michael Richards....

Answer 6

Humor is a child of joy, the friend of hope and being so, has that power to create a universe and as readily heal the infirmities of a joyless Heart.

Answer 7

humer is a SENSE
u cant turn it to a Curriculum

i believe that humer needs intellegence

Answer 8

many a truth is spoken in jest. h e a v y m a n.