ABSTRACT
From Aristotle's time to the present, philosophers have been interested in what humor is and have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the subject. This chapter deals with speculations about the nature of humor and why people laugh. It focuses on an important philosophical theory of humor, that of the great French philosopher Bergson, who elaborated his theory in his book Le Rire or Laughter. Thomas Hobbes's theory, which argues that humor is tied to a sense of superiority, provides an important insight into the relationship between those who laugh and those who are the objects of laughter. And Bergson offers us an example of a theory of humor—which states that humor involves "the mechanical encrusted on the living"—that can be logically extended to cover a large number of different kinds of humor. Various other philosophers have elaborated theories that tie humor to superiority, the most famous one being that of Hobbes.
