Odo Marquard, Humor, Vernunft und Lachen

Vol.16,No.2(2015)

Abstract
An integral part of Odo Marquard’s texts is both humour and reflections of humour, which he connects with human reason. That is why the theme of this contribution to commemorate Odo Marquard is the potential connection between humour, laughter, and reason. Marquard’s reflections on the connections between humour and reason are preceded in the text by an interpretation of evolutionary biological research on the emergence and role of laughter, which is considered to be important in understanding the development of man, and, as a result, man’s reason. From biological perspective, laughter is considered to be a form of social behaviour. Due to social aspects of laughter, one can trace a clear line between humour, which causes laughter, and reason, which is capable of producing humour and laughter. I continue with Marquard’s thoughts on potential connections between reason and humour in the framework of his philosophical anthropology. In the final part of my micro-etymological contribution I outline why humour is one the philosophically supreme activities of the human brain and show where Marquard’s ideas can supplement the evolutionary biological research of laughter.

Keywords:
humour; laughter; reason; threshold reactions; compensation
References

Heidegger, M. Was ist Metaphysik? Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Vittorio Klostermann 2006.

Kundera, M. Slova, pojmy, situace. Brno: Atlantis 2014.

Marquard, O. Exile der Heiterkeit. In: Poetik und Hermeneutik. Das Komische (hrsg. von Wolfgang Preisendanz und Rainer Warning). München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag 1976; sborník ze setkání skupiny z 2.–7. září 1974 Bad Homburg.

Marquard, O. Aesthetica und Anaesthetica. Paderborn: Schöningh 1989, kap. Exile der Heiterkeit.

Marquard, O. Skepsis und Zustimmung. Philosophische Studien. Stuttgart: Reclam 1995; kap. Loriot lauréat. Laudatio auf Bernhard-Viktor von Bülow bei der Verleihung des Kasseler Literaturpreiss für grotesken Humor 1985.

Marquard, O. Philosophie des Stattdessen. Studien. Stuttgart: Reclam 2000.

Marquard, O. Wetz F. J. Endlichkeitsphilosophisches. Über das Altern. Stuttgart: Reclam 2013.

Panksepp, J., Burgdorf J. 50k-Hz chirping (laughter?) in response to conditioned and unconditioned tickle-induced reward in rats: effects of social housing and genetic variables. In: Behavioral Brain Research 115 (1): 25–38.

Panksepp, J. and Biven, L. The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotion. New York: W. W. Norton & Company 2012.

Plessner, H. Lachen und Weinen. Eine Untersuchung der Grenzen menschlichen Verhaltens. München: Leo Lehnen/Francke 1950; původně Arnhem 1941.

Preisendanz, W. Über den Witz. Konstanz: Universitäts Verlag 1970.

Provine, R. Laughter: A stereotyped human vocalization. In: Ethology. 89, 115-124 (1991).

Provine, R. Laughter. A Scientific Investigation. New York: Viking Press 2000.

Provine, R. Laughing, Tickling, and the Evolution of Speech and Self. In: Current Directions in Psychological Science. (2004), 13, 115-218.

Ritter, J. Subjektivität. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt/Main 1974.

Rizzolatti, G., Craighero, L. The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2004, 27 (1): 169–192.

Schweda, M. Joachim Ritter und die Ritter-Schule. Hamburg: Junius 2015.

Metrics

0


107

Views

86

PDF (German) views