180139 VO Philosophy of Laughter (2020S)

Laughter is considered to be a universal human experience and regarded as an attribute of human existence. Yet, academic philosophy does not pay much attention to it. Plato even went so far as to start a tradition which attempted to exclude laughter from philosophy. However, this does not mean that philosophy has not contemplated the significance of laughter throughout the centuries. This lecture course will deal with key approaches in the philosophy of laughter from antiquity to the present. Selected chapters from the history of philosophy shall demonstrate the intellectual richness and the diversity of theoretical approaches with regard to the philosophy of laughter. In addition, the course will draw attention to the issue of inclusion and exclusion of laughter in Western philosophy. Last but not least, students will gain insight into laughter as an existential phenomenon. This class is suitable for advanced students and students at a lower level as well as for students from all faculties.
The aim of the course is to provide students with an overview of basic approaches in the philosophy of laughter from antiquity to the present. It will delve into the philosophical richness as well as the theoretical divergence of the selected approaches. Moreover, it will set up arguments to either exclude laughter from philosophy or to include it into philosophy. Last but not least, students will gain insight into laughter as a fundamental human phenomenon.
This class is a lecture course. The last 10 minutes of the lecture are reserved for discussion. At the beginning of each class, we will go over the contents of the last lecture. The course uses the e-learning platform Moodle at the University of Vienna.