Morality of Laughter

There is a rebirth of interest in the emotions. Surprisingly, however, one of the most powerful and delightful expressions of emotion -- laughter -- has largely gone unnoticed. Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Nietzsche, and Bergson puzzled over what makes us laugh. Darwin was fascinated by laughter and Freud wrote a book on wit. But laughter has received insufficient scholarly attention. In The Morality of Laughter, F.H. Buckley poses the questions of how laughter changes the way we live and think, and how philosophy is also different when the philosopher has a sense of humor.The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 addresses the proposition that laughter announces and enforces a code of behavior. There is no laughter without someone who is the butt of a joke, and no butt without a message of inferiority. Buckley labels this the positive superiority thesis. He then sets out the necessary elements of laughter such as sociability, surprise, and playfulness. Buckley considers the claim that we may laugh without superiority as in wordplay or the joke told on oneself. He deals with the true case of false superiority of laughtBuckley, F. H. is the author of 'Morality of Laughter', published 2002 under ISBN 9780765801036 and ISBN 0765801035.