Laughter - Henri Bergson

In this major philosophical essay published in 1900, Henri Bergson explores the nature of laughter and the comic with unmatched depth. What causes laughter? Why do certain situations seem comic to us? Bergson develops his famous theory that laughter arises from the perception of a "mechanism imposed on the living"—when automatism and stiffness replace the natural flexibility of life.

Key points of the work:

• Philosophical analysis of the comic in its three forms: situational comedy, character comedy, word comedy
• The social role of laughter as a corrective of rigid behaviors
• The opposition between life (flexibility, adaptation) and mechanism (repetition, automatism)
• A reflection on art, society, and human nature

A fundamental work of French philosophy, Laughter remains an essential reference for understanding the mechanisms of the comic and the social dimension of humor. An accessible text that reveals all the subtlety of Bergson’s thought.

About the author: Henri Bergson (1859-1941), French philosopher, Nobel Prize in Literature 1927, is one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. His works on time, consciousness, and life have deeply marked modern philosophy.