Philosophy of laughter

Carnival versus Thélème: The Question of ‘Freedom’
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The best vantage point for understanding ‘transgressive sacrality’ as a universal phenomenon is the principle of ‘freedom’ (svātantrya), the central concern of Rabelais (1494–1563), Bakhtin (1895–1975), and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020).2 The medieval Christian dispensation revolved around the opposition, alternation, and complementarity between the stern, ascetic, otherworldly spiritual ideal of the Church and the periodic extended license of the popular carnival that rejuvenated this world of piety by rendering it topsy-turvy. Through Rabelais—the erudite monk and priest, who embodied the transition to the ‘humanist’ era—the unschooled obscene clamor of the primordial folk and festive marketplace found unvarnished exaggerated expression in early Renaissance literature. No longer capable of appreciating much less endorsing such celebration of the beast in Man, post-Enlightenment critics, severing his essential links with the ‘unofficial’ world of debasing folk humor, had sought to minimize the ‘Rabelaisian’ by reducing its thrust to negative anti-clerical satire or rebuked its capricious author wherever his excesses seemed too gratuitous.3 By rehabilitating carnivalesque laughter as intrinsic, readers, the aspiring new elites, from the surviving oral mass culture (Berrong 52-78).4 Princely Pantagruel himself embodies—especially after meeting the disconcerting Panurge—the values, ideals, temperament and comportment of the Renaissance Man par excellence.
Is ‘aristocratic’ Thélème therefore, pace Bakhtin, a (definitive) repudiation by Rabelais of his own earlier celebration of generalized antinomian license, or rather a (necessary, though guarded) reformulation that permits a better understanding of the presuppositions, parameters, and finality of that elusive ‘liberation’? Juxtaposing the medieval Christian carnival to its still surviving counterpart in the Hindu subcontinent—the traditional excesses of which have not been wholly smothered by the recent cultural passage of its (especially anglophone) elites to Westernizing modernity—may allow us to propose a more dialectical understanding of how such (systemic and not only carnivalesque) transgression could culminate in (inner) spiritual freedom.

The laughter of Samuel Beckett’s characters is frequently strange and unsettling. Characters laugh unpredictably, and the reader or spectator does not feel prompted to join them; when we do laugh in response to the Beckettian text, we are often shocked by our own lack of propriety. I examine laughter theory and the laughter in Gothic texts to explore why Beckettian laughter so disconcerts us, and what the implications of this affective response are for our understanding of what constitutes the human, and of our own ostensibly human identities.

Osho's primary emphasis falls on the affirmation of life and its celebration. He focuses on the ananda aspect of the Reality. As he says: so let your blissfulness be the only criterion. If something is making you blissful, it is bound to be real-because from the unreal you can't get blissfulness. This paper attempts a critical appraisal from the traditionalist perspective of Rajneesh. This paper argues that he ignores certain other dimensions of mystical path and even risks hedonization of mysticism. Reducing mysticism to the art of pursuing bliss implies renouncing grand theological and metaphysical claims that all religions have made including the apparently non-metaphysical religions. Aestheticization of life is his fundamental message. Aesthetic orientation is the defining orientation of his mysticism. Life is a song to be sung, a dance to be danced; and only those who can suing and dance and rejoice can know what life is. He hates the old religions which spoke in terms of do's and don'ts and replaces traditional commandments with what he calls "a few requests." Osho seeks to turn life into a festival of lights and he is not bothered to see the seamy side of the world. He doesn't find the world evil or full of suffering. He is extreme antithesis of Buddha and Schopenhauer when he comes to praise the beauties and the charm of the world

"We participate in moral debate, instead of taking morality for granted, because of discontent with the moral discourse in vogue. We feel that something is distorted or concealed. One way to expose deficiencies in established discourse is critical argument, but under certain specific historical circumstances, the apparent self-evidence of established moral discourse has gained such a sway, has acquired such an ability to conceal its basic vulnerability, that its validity seems beyond contestation. Then, all of a sudden, its vulnerability is revealed, through the experience of laughter. Moral criticism is preceded by laughter. All crucial transformations in the history of moral thinking were made possible by laughter and moral criticism is originally a comic genre. The moral significance of laughter is recovered with the help of four philosophers of laughter: Bakhtin, Nietzsche, Bataille and Foucault. Laughter allows reality to appear in a certain light. It is a philosophical factor in its own right. This is explained through a thorough analysis of three crucial moral revolutions occurring in the fourth century B.C., the sixteenth century A.D. and the nineteenth century A.D. These transformations involved basic experiences of laughter articulated by three outstanding protagonists, namely Socrates, Luther and Ibsen.
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Στο πρώτο μέρος του παρόντος σημειώματος, το 'Γέλιο' αποτελεί εκτός από  βασικό θέμα και κύριο υπό ανάλυση αντικείμενο, το σημείο αναφοράς των περισσότερων συλλογισμών σε σχέση με το γέλιο καθαυτό – σε αντιπαράθεση με την βασική μπεργκσονική χρήση του γέλιου-εκ-του-κωμικού. Παλινδρομώντας, το σημείωμα απομακρύνεται από το 'Γέλιο' με θράσος κι επιστρέφει σ' αυτό με ταπεινότητα. Στο δεύτερο μέρος, δίνεται χώρος για ανάπτυξη σε ζητήματα που άπτονται του 'Γέλιου' αλλά κυρίως του γέλιου: η πολυδύναμη στιγμή που προηγείται του γέλιου, το γέλιο στο θέατρο, στη σκηνή και στην πλατεία, η έννοια του θεατρικού άκρου που σχετίζεται με το γέλιο και κυρίως η σχέση του σκέπτεσθαι με τον παλμό του γέλιου κι η φαινομενολογική λειτουργία του γελαστή. Επικουρικά στο σκοπό αυτό, παρουσιάζονται ορισμένες εφαρμογές των μηχανισμών που αναφέρει ο Μπεργκσόν σε διάφορα θεατρικά έργα και παραστάσεις.

Laughter, in essence, has always been a ‘serious’ matter. As a universal form of human behaviour, it has many facets and functions. Depending upon the contexts, laughing along/with or laughing at/about are symbolically charged gestures that cement, subvert, and/or function as shock absorbers of the existing order of hierarchies and the attendant discontents in the society. Unnamati Syama Sundar, the Dalit cartoonist-scholar unpicks the intricate and underlying grammar of laughter in his book 'No Laughing Matter:..'

The separation of philosophy from literature and vice-versa is an aspect of early twentieth century intellectual sclerosis that affected a particular region of the globe. I am, of course, referring to the British/American school of philosophy otherwise known as analytic philosophy-or the logico-linguistic turn in philosophy begun by Russell, Lewis, Strawson and others, based on a faith in the universal Truth of pure reason critiqued by their own god, Kant. Therefore, that contemporary French philosopher, Alain Badiou, would have to invent the term "inaesthetics" to refer to the inextricable relation between philosophy and literature, only demonstrates how far we have strayed from the course first paved by Plato twenty-five hundred years ago-a course that continued well into the nineteenth century and twentieth century with thinkers like Nietzsche and Sartre. Nietzsche, for instance, began his academic career not a philosopher but as a classical philologist, whose innovative and insightful work on ancient Greek and Latin literature, earned him a reputation as the most promising philologist of his time. Fortunately for us--and if we take Nietzsche"s at his words, fortunately for him as well--this rising young star of philology who secured a tenured position at the University of Basel before completing his doctoral dissertation, became a meteoric falling star, tumbling down to earth in luminescent fire, with the controversial publication of his first book, The Birth of Tragedy.

Przedstawione w książce zagadnienia nawiązują do idei integracji międzykulturowej i budowania wspólnoty poprzez radosny śmiech - zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do fascynującej, choć trudnej przeszłości. Ich podstawą jest komizm zawarty w żydowskich dowcipach i anegdotach o edukacji oraz wspólnota śmiechu i humoru ukształtowana w rozmaitych okolicznościach. W poprzedzającym część antologiczną eseju popularnonaukowym, zostały przedstawione argumenty potwierdzające tezę, że w zróżnicowanym kulturowo środowisku, dowcip i towarzyszący mu śmiech mogą stanowić czynnik dialogu międzykulturowego oraz narzędzie edukacji międzykulturowej. Zamiarem zespołu opracowującego niniejszą książkę była popularyzacja działalności Fundacji dla Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego w bydgoskim Fordonie i zachęcenie do współpracy poprzez zainteresowanie wspólnym dziedzictwem kulturowym.

cytowanie: P.P.Grzybowski: Morycek w szkole. Żydowskie dowcipy o edukacji, w dialogu międzykulturowym. Fundacja dla Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, Bydgoszcz 2016, 178 s., ISBN 978-83-927223-0-4 (patronat medialny: Oficyna Wydawnicza Impuls)

słowa kluczowe: śmiech, humor, dowcip, anegdota, edukacja międzykulturowa, dziedzictwo kulturowe, kultura żydowska, Żydzi, edukacja

In this article, I argue against the claim made by Vassilis Saroglou that religion, and specifically Christianity, may be taken as an a priori incompatibility. This is done through a discussion of the reconciliation of theology and humor that is evident in the work of G. K. Chesterton — a theologian who was forever laughing, joking and defending the ephemeral. To navigate this reconciliation, I tackle Chesterton’s writings on two fronts. To begin with, after reading Chesterton through the lens offered William Desmond’s ‘fourfold sense of being’, I discuss his thinking on humor in terms of his distinctive articulation of Christianity in paradoxical terms. Secondly, I then discuss Chesterton’s views on humor with regard to his prioritization of the virtues of honesty, humility and hospitality in relation to his own paradoxical logic. In showing these two strands of his thinking — his paradoxy and morality — to be deeply intertwined, I suggest that the reconciliation of humor and theology is most perfectly located in and represented by what may be understood as the centre of Chesterton’s theological project: the desire that is expressed through the Christian hope for the renewal of all things.

The benefits of humor as preventative, curative, and therapeutic medicine has been cherished universally throughout civilized man’s history.  A sense of humor is instinctual and innate, suggesting a high priority in human development. The correlation of humor and health is explored through the critical analysis of Boyle and Joss-Reid’s (2002) study, The Relationship of humour to health: A psychometric investigation.  This analysis includes a literature review and the strengths and limitations, interpretive dimensions, ethical aspects and integrated design of this comprehensive study; supporting the hypotheses that humor is significantly associated with health and that individuals with a greater sense of humor report significantly higher levels of good health as compared with those with less humor.

In this chapter, the author will analyze the relationship between humor and power in the light of court jesters (comedians) and sovereign (president). The chapter offers a philosophical perspective on the social significance of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The theoretical framework is based on C. G. Jung’s theory of the archetypes, and especially on the concepts of the ‘shadow’ and the ‘trickster’

This is a comparison of Agathon’s role in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae and Plato’s Symposium. Firstly, I examine the Platonic version, and the unique, idiosyncratic part Plato gives Agathon to play, as a host to all, and a hostage to Socrates. Secondly, I discuss his interaction with Inlaw, the ordinary Athenian, in Aristophanes’ play. Such parallel reading allows us not only to refine our outlook on the dramatic construction both of the “talking party” and of the comic performance, but also to capture how really poikilos, for better or worse, that urban love could be. Finally, I analyze the significance of this juxtaposition, as an intertext. Plato, I argue, produces a proper palinode of Agathon, as an erotikos and a mimetic poet. By taking seriously the face-to-face between Agathon and Agathon, two dissonant and yet compatible variations on one man, our picture of Athenian erotic culture emerges sharper, and in greater detail. 
Key words:
Eros, sensuality, praise, blame, softness, manliness, effeminacy, body, language.

A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton was a leading intellectual of the British Edwardian age and one of the important social and religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His trademark was paradox. He wrote in defense of the imagination and the corralling of opposites, oppositions, contradictions and bountiful inconsistencies. The article explores Chesterton’s views on faith, religion, God, Christianity, Islam, modernity, change, and progress. It locates him in a philosophical stream that sees laughter and comedy as a religious disguise, paradox as a creative force, and the imagination as a necessary complement of reason. This is framed by a discussion of Chesterton’s thoughts about the importance of limits and boundaries in defining good actions and good societies.

Книга представляет собой философское исследование природы смеха. В ней подробно анализируются основные теории комического от античности до современности. Рассматриваются философские основания смеха, его общественные функции, проблемы национального и профессионального юмора, автор предлагает оригинальную концепцию смеха как социокультурного явления. Адресовано широкому кругу читателей, интересующихся проблемами философии и мировой культуры.

In this, my research master thesis, I looked at laughter as a form of resistance in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke, Tim Burton's Batman and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. The aim is to analyze if the Joker's most famous characteristic, his continuous laughter, can be seen as a form of resistance in itself. Following two laughing theorists, Nietzsche and Foucault, this work analyzes the laughter and the madness of the Joker in three of its most famous incarnations.

Si homo est, est risibile (Dante, Epistola XIII, § 74) Nella lettera al signor Pitt con la quale Laurence Sterne apre il corso de La vita e le opinioni di Tristram Shandy gentiluomo, si legge che, ogniqualvolta un uomo sorride, egli "aggiunge qualcosa" alla vita.

Рассматриваются теории и история смеха, его функции, статус и  приемы, а также роль юмора в различных сферах и общественных группах  (этническая и профессиональная коммуникация, закрытые группы,  женщины, дети, философы, социологи, экономисты, юристы, преподаватели и студенты). Особое внимание уделяется юмору в политике и средствах  массовой коммуникации. Приводится множество забавных примеров и  исторических фактов. Для научных работников и специалистов в различных областях  современного гуманитарного знания.

Laughter is a normal and natural physiologic response to certain stimuli with widely acknowledged psychological benefits. However, current research is beginning to show that laughter may also have serious positive physiological effects for those who engage in it on a regular basis. Providers who prescribe laughter to their patients in a structured way may be able to use these natural, free, and easily distributable positive benefits. This article reviews the current medical understanding of laughter's physiologic effects and makes a recommendation for how physicians might best harness this natural modality for their patients.

Celem refleksji będącej podstawą niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie okoliczności budowania wspólnoty śmiechu w klasie szkolnej. Autor zakłada, że jednym z czynników rozwiązywania konfliktów, poszukiwania płaszczyzn dialogu i osiągania kompromisu w klasie szkolnej postrzeganej jako pogranicze kulturowe jest świadome budowanie wspólnoty śmiechu. Jej liderem może być zarówno nauczyciel (mistrz), jak i jeden z uczniów pełniący wśród rówieśników funkcję błazna klasowego.
Klasa szkolna rozpatrywana jest tu jako jeden z najbardziej rozpowszechnionych typów kulturowego pogranicza. Dochodzi w niej do spotkania osób funkcjonujących na co dzień w różnych grupach wiekowych, charakteryzujących się odmiennym statusem w środowisku szkoły. W odniesieniu do niej można mówić także o kontaktach z Innością/Obcością zachodzących na zasadzie przenikania określonych wzorów kulturowych i wartości ze sfery publicznej, co następuje w czasie lekcji z przedmiotów, w których program jest wpisane zróżnicowanie kulturowe. Naturalne jest więc stykanie się w klasie (niekiedy także starcie) wzorów kulturowych wyniesionych z domu przez uczniów i/lub obecnych w kulturze masowej. Wiąże się to z konfliktami w społeczności szkolnej, przybierającymi rozmaite formy i wymagającymi od wychowawców przedsięwzięcia środków zaradczych. Wspólnotowy śmiech w klasie szkolnej – szczególnie śmiech z kimś, a nie przeciw komuś – świadczy o integracji środowiska, wzajemnym zrozumieniu i możliwości zaistnienia dialogu ponad granicami wieku i statusu. Zarówno nauczyciel-mistrz, jak i klasowy błazen mogą więc odgrywać w klasowej społeczności rolę nie do przecenienia, ponieważ budowanie – także dzięki ich działaniom – międzykulturowej wspólnoty w klasie pomaga uczniom aktywnie poznawać jej wartość, którą mogą wykorzystać w życiu pozaszkolnym.

Słowa kluczowe: śmiech, pogranicze kulturowe, edukacja międzykulturowa, nauczyciel, klasa szkolna

Abstract
The aim of these reflections is to verify the thesis concerning establishment of the community of laughter as one of the factors supporting and empowering teachers in the process of resolving conflicts, seeking dimensions of dialogue, and achieving compromise in the classroom (perceived as a cultural borderland). It is an area, people of different social statuses that function on daily basis in various age groups meet. Hence, with reference to the classroom, encountering the Other/Alien occurs on the ground permeated by given cultural patterns and values from the public sphere. Such process takes place when the class accomplishes objectives linked to the cultural diversity.
Presented arguments were formulated as a result of a profound inspection and analysis of the secondary data. Both the master-teacher and the class clown can play a key role, be of paramount importance to the class community. Establishing cross-cultural community in the classroom can help pupils to actively recognize and learn the value of such community – that could be utilized in their subsequent, after-school life.
Keywords: laughter, cultural borderland, cross-cultural education, teacher, classroom, intercultural education, multicultural education

A partir de materiales etnográficos de campo, se describen diversas instancias de fenómenos que hacen reír a los chacobo (Pano) de la  Amazonía boliviana en contextos discursivos o prácticos como la caza, las fiestas, las relaciones interétnicas, las relaciones de parentesco, la onomástica o la mitología, y se propone una hipótesis sociológica de interpretación del humorismo chacobo.

Wer an eine Phänomenologie des Lachens denkt, denkt wohl zuerst an Henri Bergson und Helmuth Plessner. Bergsons Essay Das Lachen (1900) und Plessners Studie Lachen und Weinen (1941) gelten als Klassiker und sind vermutlich die am meisten gelesenen philosophischen Abhandlungen über das Lachen. Aber was hat die Tradition der Phänomenologie diesbezüglich sonst noch zu bieten? Der folgende Artikel bietet einen Überblick über phänomenologische Theorien des Lachens, wobei sowohl die vor- als auch die nachphänomenologische Tradition bzw. das Umfeld der Phänomenologie mit berücksichtigt wird. Wie bei vielen randständigen Themen in der Philosophie, so trifft auch auf das Lachen zu: Ist einmal die Aufmerksamkeit darauf gerichtet, so bietet das philosophische Feld mehr, als man zunächst für möglich hielt.

Erschienen in: Maske und Kothurn 4 (2006), S. 30-40. Haben Sie in letzter Zeit einmal gelacht? Jede und jeder von Ihnen wird dies wohl mehr oder weniger bejahen können. Lachen wie Komik sind ein wesentlicher Teil unserer Lebensrealität, ja wir können gar nicht anders, als dann und wann einfach mal zu lachen. Ob nun zu Hause oder im Büro, im Kino, im Theater oder im Kabarett -überall wird gelacht, auch wenn sich Formen des Lachens weitreichend unterscheiden ebenso wie die Lachanlässe und komischen Begebenheiten. Das Komische stellt ein Ereignis dar, das stets auf eine Wahrnehmungsform, eben auf das Lachen ausgerichtet ist. Die signifikante Wechselbeziehung von Komik und Lachen ist vielfach betont worden und gilt als unbestritten, während das, was die Komik und das Lachen selbst auszeichnet, wie sie funktionieren und welche Funktionen und Bedeutungen sie haben, sehr unterschiedlich und kontrovers bestimmt wurde. Eine Dimension des Komischen ist indes der Zusammenhang von Komik und Scheitern. Stolpern, Versprechen oder Fallen, jene Mißgeschicke, die sich konträr zu den avisierten Handlungen und Intentionen verhalten und zugleich eine Fremdbestimmtheit offenbaren, 1 ob sie nun bewußt inszeniert oder unfreiwillig geschehen, gelten geradezu als Paradebeispiele des Komischen. Das Scheitern stellt aber nicht nur einen zentralen Topos des Komischen dar, sondern mit dem komischen Geschehen wird auch eine Verletzung und Kritik von sozialen, ästhetischen, moralischen und anderen Normen und Vorstellungen verbunden, also ein momentanes Aussetzen oder Versagen von normativen Werten. 2 Allerdings, so scheint mir, haftet auch dem komischen Ereignis selbst etwas Krisenhaftes, etwas Scheiterndes an, können Komik wie Lachen selbst ins Schlittern, ja in eine Krise geraten. Denn so oft wie wir lachen müssen, können wir auch manchmal einfach nicht lachen, obgleich wir lachen sollten. Jede und jeder hat ebenso schon erlebt, daß Witze nicht ankommen, Ironie nicht bemerkt wird, kleine Späße, Lästereien oder Frotzeleien für manche gar nicht komisch sind, oder man sich schlicht und ergreifend dem Lachen verweigert, weil man sich dazu gezwungen sieht. Oder jene Situationen, bei denen das Komische plötzlich ins Unkomische kippt, einem das Lachen quasi im Halse stecken bleibt und eine Unsicherheit und Ungewißheit bezüglich der Situation aufkommt, ja die Komik selbst in Frage stehen kann. Im weiteren möchte ich dieser Krisenhaftigkeit der Komik folgen, wobei ich zunächst

This article addresses both well-researched and relatively unexplored questions pertaining to humor and laughter. The following are some of the questions that are
considered here: What is humor? What is the role of laughter in humor? What are the ontogenetic and phylogenetic origins of laughter? How does humor work, cognitively? What is the functional significance of humor? What are the varieties of laughter and how are they perceived?What kinds of disorders of laughter
have been documented and what do they suggest about the neural circuitry underlying laughter and humor?

À relire, revoir ou réécouter les entretiens accordés par Marguerite Duras au fil de sa carrière, l’on ne peut qu’être frappé par la fréquence de son rire. Le rire s’infiltre là où réside une faille dans la raison, comme une insolence lancée vers l’idéologie dominante. À partir de ce qui fait rire l’écrivain, il devient possible de relire et d’analyser ce qui provoque le rire de certains de ses personnages parmi les plus fameux, à commencer par la mère, telle qu’elle apparaît dans Un barrage contre le Pacifique, L’Amant et L’Amant de la Chine du Nord.

The paper intends to track the naming criteria for dogs among the chané. Links between onomastics and diverse cultural contexts are thus analysed - such as the daily treatment and attitudes towards dogs, mythic symbolism, etymology, human names, names of domestic pets and taxonomic classification. In a comparative perspective, meaningful relationships are also verified with the dynamics of ethnic relationships and mythologies of Chaco ethnic groups.

This article examines textual descriptions of smiling, laughing and joking with the pope in thirteenth-century Rome. It focuses on two Anglo-Norman accounts of conducting litigation at the papal curia: Thomas of Marlborough's (d.1236) Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham and Gerald of Wales's (c. 1146–1220×23) De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae. Both authors include several careful and prominent references to smiling, laughing and joking, and specifically in relation to Pope Innocent III. These passages have previously been read as straightforward examples of wit and friendship, but this study shows that the authors use these physiological expressions to convey complex and subtly different pictures of the papal curia. Above all, this article demonstrates how Thomas and Gerald's descriptions of humorous interactions with the pope play crucial narrative and mnemonic roles within their work.

Il presente articolo esamina le descrizioni testuali del sorridere, del ridere e dello scherzare con il Papa nella Roma del XIII secolo. Si focalizza in particolare su due resoconti anglo-normanni di controversie nella curia papale: il 'Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham' di Thomas of Marlborough (data di morte 1236) e il 'De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae' di Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–1220×23). In entrambi i testi sono presenti molti riferimenti attenti agli atti di sorridere, di ridere e di scherzare, in particolar modo in relazione a Papa Innocenzo III. Questi passaggi sono stati in precedenza interpretati come inequivocabili esempi di umorismo e amicizia, ma questo studio dimostra come gli autori usino queste ‘espressioni fisiologiche’ per descrivere immagini leggermente differenti della curia papale. Soprattutto questo articolo mostra come le descrizioni di interazione umoristica con il papa di Thomas of Marlborough e di Gerald of Wales giochino ruoli narrativi e mnemonici cruciali all'interno dei loro lavori.

Taking occasion from a recently published collective volume regarding laughter in the ancient Greek world (Wonderful Laughs: Laughter in Ancient Greek Literature, ed. M. I. Yossi – A. D. Melista, Athens, Smili Editions, 2017), this article surveys in a concise manner the most important aspects of the function of laughter in the literature and the society of antiquity. In particular, the investigation revolves around the use of ridicule and scorn in the major literary genres (Homeric epic, tragedy and comedy, rhetoric). The views of great ancient thinkers (Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Plutarch) with regard to the nature and morality of the laughable are also discussed. A number of specialized topics are examined, including the aggressive and satirical aspect of laughter, its presence in the context of ancient religion and ritual, the moralistic condemnation of laughter, and the attempt to restrict ridicule within the limits of gracious jesting and propriety.

This essay examines the ideas of carnival and the carnivalesque in relation to a modern social formation to which I refer as the “Kingdom of Coal.” Conjured incessantly from disjunct social perspectives on fossil fuel extraction and energy production, the Kingdom of Coal offers a grounded example of what Charles Taylor terms a “modern social imaginary.” Carnivalesque maskings and unmaskings dramatize a struggle for publicly relevant subjectivity in the United States. Social bodies constructed through such carnivalesque tropes as the grotesque body, the slaying of the king, and (ecologically) gay materiality articulate profoundly different stakes across class lines. Emulaing the public space needed for critical reflection on such imaginaries, this essay brings into dialogue voices kept rigidly apart by environmental decision-makers and the national media. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of monologic and dialogic modes of communication, and the related concepts of classical and grotesque bodies and ecologies, drawn from his theory of the carnivalesque, are key.

The article provides a cognitive inquiry into the Comic contradiction based on the Helmholz “unconscious inference” concept, and compares various interpretations of the nature of Laughter by Immanuel Kant, Henry Bergson and Konrad Lorenz. Comic situation and Laughter created in it were considered as the most painless way to discharge of social aggression.

KEY WORDS: cognitive approach, comic, aggression, unconscious inference, Kant, Bergson, Lorenz.

Resumen:  Una de las formas más arcaicas y evidentes de la comunicación es reír. En la cultura digital, las imágenes humorísticas, en concreto las satíricas, se unen a la sociedad de masas mediante la configuración de ideas e identidades. Durante el s. XIX, la identidad y el nacionalismo han sido dos caras de la misma moneda. Su representación por medio de símbolos e ideas siguen estando patentes en la actualidad. En el ámbito nacional, la identidad catalana no solo sigue teniendo una vinculación nacionalista propia del XIX, sino que ha devenido en un fenómeno de identidad propio unido asimismo al procés de independencia. Por eso mismo y con el objetivo de poner en relieve el poder de las imágenes humorísticas actuales, como son los memes, veremos cómo se convierten estas últimas, en expresiones de la memoria identitaria mediante el caso catalán.

Abstract: One of the most archaic and obvious forms of communication is laughter. In digital culture, humorous images, in particular satirical ones, they join in mass society through the configuration of ideas and identities. During the 19th century, identity and nationalism have been two sides of the same coin. Their representation through symbols and ideas are still evident today. At the national level, Catalan identity not only continues to have the nationalist connection typical of the nineteenth century, but it also became an identity phenomenon of its own, closely linked to the process for independence. For that reason, and with the aim of highlighting the power of current humorous images such as memes, we will see through the Catalan case how these images become the expressions of identity memory.

This essay analyzes the subtle theology of laughter that is scattered across Augustine's Confessiones (conf.). First, I draw on Sarah Byers's work in order to argue that Augustine adopts and adapts Stoic moral psychology as a means of sorting the laugh into two moral kinds—as evidence of either good joy or bad joy. In turn, these two kinds provide the loose structure for the double theological taxonomy of merciless and merciful laughter that conf. develops. Next, I treat laughter of each sort via exegesis of several textual vignettes. Close readings of key passages show that both merciless and merciful laughter evince distinctive features across Augustine's conf. This also reveals exactly how Augustine embeds laughter's double taxonomy in order to confect his own salvation narrative. Thus, on the reading offered here, laughter proves central to the salvation history that Augustine's conf. weaves. We learn a good deal about Augustine's story and his theology by attending to the subject, object, and character of laughter that may be found in his conf.

Proponemos determinar cómo Kierkegaard establece la risa como un concepto existencial. Para él, los estadios intermedios de la ironía y el humor se relacionan con la risa. Empero, esto no es ni estética ni ética. Más aún, el cristiano ríe, y lo hace a pesar de la angustia y la desesperación. El cristiano, al reír, no está simplemente ante lo inmediato, lo que significa que la risa es posición existencial. Es preciso aprender a reírse, así como es preciso aprender a angustiarse. La risa expresa entonces una de las manifestaciones más altas de la subjetividad.