Peter E. Gordon (Department of History)
First-Year Seminar 66K | Fall Term | Wednesday, 12:45-2:45 PM
Enrollment limited to 12 | CANVAS SITE
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. In this seminar we will pursue one of the most puzzling features of human life: our capacity for laughter. What do we find humorous and why? Drawing upon multiple disciplines, from philosophy to neurology, and from psychoanalysis to sociology, we will explore multiple explanations for why we laugh and whether humor is distinctive to human beings. We will explore Rembrandt’s laughter and Haydn’s wit, the sacred “folly” as discussed by the humanist Erasmus, and the hostility of humor as theorized by Freud. Readings will include selections from various early modern and modern philosophers, with occasional appeals to historians of art, musicologists, sociologists, and scientists. If we are fortunate, we will also call upon the expertise of a chimpanzee.