Hobbes on Laughter

The author of the study argues against the majority view that believes Thomas Hobbes was a classic advocate of the best known theory of laughter, in which laughter is an expression of superiority. Through an explication of all three passages in which Hobbes systematically discusses laughter, the author rebuts the idea that Hobbs was concerned with a comprehensive theory of laughter in the sense of stating its necessary and sufficient conditions. For Hobbes, the treatise on laughter was originally just a means for better understanding of the mental state of glory, which played a fundamental role mostly in his early theory of motivation, and thus was central for his entire philosophy. In Hobbes' late philosophy, however, it was losing its significance, so that the short treatise on laughter, which in later writings only briefly reiterates the original exposition, ultimately in De homine lingers only as an inorganic relic. The text also points out the strongly rhetorical character of Hobbes' explication, which is far more likely to warn against excessive laughter as a symptom of a fallen form of so called glory than it would be to actually and factually analyze the essence of laughter itself.