Arthur Schopenhauer

humor and the pitiable human condition

Robert Wicks

pp. 89-104

in: Lydia Moland (ed), All too human, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

An 1814 entry in Schopenhauer's early manuscripts states that "to a certain extent the greatest problems lying quite close to us are laughing, crying, and music." To show the importance of laughter in Schopenhauer's thought, this essay develops his notebook entry by considering how his accounts of laughter, crying, and music inform his views on the human condition. Schopenhauer's account of laughter as the upshot of perceiving an incongruity between our general conception of a thing or event and the actual perceptual qualities of the thing or event to which the concept refers is integrated with (a) his analysis of crying as essentially the expression self-pity and (b) his assertion of music's essential seriousness. "Humor" – a species of laughter that recognizes the 'seriousness concealed behind a joke" – is shown to apply to the incongruity between the respective interpretations of life as a tragedy and as a comedy to yield an overall conception of the human condition as akin to a theatrical farce, where genuine heroism is impossible and where pity is the appropriate sentiment. Nietzschean laughter is introduced for contrast: Nietzsche's is a triumphant laughter expressive of his success in the fierce struggle to overcome his deep pity for the human condition.

Cited authors

Nietzsche Friedrich

Schopenhauer Arthur