Plato, Hobbes, Kant, Kierkegaard Response

    Plato, Hobbes, Kant, and Kierkegaard offer various opinions on what constitutes funny, what expense humor arises, and what kind of person stimulates a laugh from others. Plato first explains humor as a "pleasure and paint that lies in the malice of amusement" (12). He finds that humor is almost always at someone else's expense and that the individual being laughed at must be acting foolish or in some way untraditional that warrants such mockery. Plato and Socrates concluded that "when we laugh at what is ridiculous in our friends, our pleasure in mixing with malice mixes with pain" (13). I find this ideology quite controversial as the only form of humor is not the result of others' ills, and humor is not always accompanied by mal intent of ridicule over someone we care about. A similar form is taken by Thomas Hobbes, who claims that "by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by compassion whereof they suddenly applaud themselves" (19), alluding to a form of success or superiority that one feels when they do not experience the same deformity or mistake. 

            I found it much easier to agree with the logic that Kant and Kierkegaard propose that humor comes from a place of indeterminacy and spontaneity that elicit a surprise and laugh from those experiencing the discontinuity. Kierkegaard claims that "the comic is present in every stage of life, for whenever there is life, there is a contradiction, and whenever there is a contradiction, the comical is present" (83). Kant and Kierkegaard propose a view that the comical is a part of every life and that no individual is exempt from the comedy of the unexpected or uncontrollable, and that it is not necessarily malice or ill intent performed against another when humor is found, however a natural part of life that produces enjoyment, happiness, and good health. This is my philosophy associated with humor, life is hilarious, and once you are in tune with the comedy that seeks you out daily, you will be a lot happier and learn to enjoy the parts of your life that may not go as planned.