Laughter and the good life in Plato and Aristotle

Thesis

This thesis investigates the role that laughter plays in the good life for Plato and Aristotle. A deeply negative view of laughter is standardly attributed to Plato: in the Republic, he condemns violent laughter and comedy; in the Philebus, he associates laughter with envy (phthonos); and in the Laws, he argues that comedy should be strictly state controlled to prevent moral harm. Although scholars have increasingly challenged this view by examining the more benign instances of laughter within the drama of Plato’s dialogues, there has yet to be a comprehensive analysis of his views on the value of laughter.

My research seeks to fill this gap by examining Plato’s explicit remarks on laughter in the Republic, the Philebus, and the Laws, and by considering laughter as a dramatic element in the 'Phaedo', the only dialogue in which Socrates laughs. Over the course of my analysis, I will uncover the complex interconnections between the bodily act of laughing and the following phenomena in Plato: the psychological state(s) underpinning laughter, the ‘ridiculous’ (to geloion) as a particular type of content, and the genre of comedy. By situating his remarks on laughter within the broader framework of his ethical and aesthetic theories, I will show that Plato had a concept of various kinds of laughter, ranging from the vicious to the morally beneficial.

In the final part of this thesis, I turn to Aristotle who is generally seen as taking a much more positive view of laughter than Plato. I will provide an analysis of Aristotle’s account of the virtue of wittiness (eutrapelia) in the Nicomachean Ethics in order to show how he reaches a greater ethical accommodation of laughter than Plato. I will also suggest that their views on the value of laughter are not as divergent as is often supposed.

Authors: Daly, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-no71ddqxz
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Aristotle's ethics; ancient moral psychology; ancient ethical theory; comedy; laughter; Plato's ethics
• Subjects: Philosophy, Ancient