Philosophy, Literature, and Laughter: Notes on an Ontology of the Moment

Abstract

There is an initial difficulty which merits acknowledgment at the outset of this inquiry. In philosophy, all categories are weighted toward reflection and away from spontaneity. It is hard to envision a philosophy of laughter, notwithstanding Bergson’s familiar efforts to categorize the comic, or Nietzsche’s provocations lauding caprice. Philosophical discourse has been solidly and traditionally anchored in eternal concerns far from the madding eruption of laughter — the sound of frolic signifying nothing. The characteristic philosophical disdain for, and obsession with escape from the momentary, the pleasurable, the distraction of the body and temptations of the senses, the seduction of, and abandonment to the embrace of emotion — all of this argues against any profitable inquiry into the domain of laughter.