Pragmatics of Laughter in Hellenistic philosophy

Abstract

The article deals with the philosophical possibilities of laughter in the Hellenistic age. At first, we specify the role of laughter in various genres of philosophical speech, and then we divide different types of laughter. Further, we analyze the use of laughter for liberation, however, we notice not the general anthropological aspect of “Culture of popular laughter”, but the specific philosophical possibilities of this liberation. If the whole world is a comedy, then philosophical laughter overcomes the private perspective — not to the “Collective body”, but to the perspective of the divine view. Finally, we explore the relation between laughter and the concept of godlikeness (ὁμοίωσις θεῷ).