Description

• Title:
  Considerations Around the Platonic Conception of Laughter
• Creator:
  Michalski, Rafał
• Description:
  The purpose of this article is a critical reconstruction of the Platonic conception of laughter, which is presented primarily in Republic andPhilebus. A comic quality calls, in his opinion, to lower emotions, it throws human mind out of balance and undermines the prevailing order of values. The philosopher associates a laughter with the feeling of envy (phtonos), which comes down to the joy of humiliating of someone weaker. The comic envy - as opposed to passive jealousy - almost automatically leads to the activity, to the enhancement of humiliation. Laughter is caused according to Plato by a defect resulting from the ignorance about himself. The key feature of the comic situation is the asymmetry between the victim's weakness and the strength of a laughing person. Plato's concept of laughter turns out to be one-sided, when we compare it with "laughter of Democritus" which serves as a therapeutic and catharctic means. Laughter is here a clear signal that initiates the critical reflection on himself and gives impetus to a change of attitude towards the world. In his writings Plato did not include such educational and cognitive aspects of laughter because in his philosophy it becomes a specific antagonist of true knowledge. The negative attitude towards laughter does not go hand in hand with Plato’s recognition of Socrates, who used irony as a key element in his method of inquiry leading to truth.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights:
  Prawa autorskie (c) 2016 Studia z Historii Filozofii
• Date:
  2016.02.18
• Type:
  info:eu-repo/semantics/article;
  info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
• Language:
  Polish
• Source:
  Studies in the History of Philosophy; Vol. 6 No. 4 (2015); 149-174;
  Studia z Historii Filozofii; Tom 6 Nr 4 (2015); 149-174;
  2391-775X;
  2083-1978
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Publisher:
  Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu
• Relation: https://apcz.umk.pl/szhf/article/view/szhf.2015.056/7785
• Subject:
  Platon;
  Sokrates;
  Homer;
  Demokryt;
  ironia;
  śmiech;
  komedia;
  Plato;
  Socrates;
  Home;
  Democritus;
  irony;
  laughter;
  comedy
• Identifier: https://apcz.umk.pl/szhf/article/view/szhf.2015.056
• Data provider:
  Akademicka Platforma Czasopism
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  text