Laughter

Henri Bergson's Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic is a sharp philosophical inquiry into why we laugh and what comedy reveals about human life. Bergson refuses to pin the comic down as a fixed definition; instead, he studies it as a living phenomenon, moving through movement, words, faces, character, and social behavior. At the heart of his argument is a striking claim: the comic is strictly human, and laughter arises when we view people with emotional detachment, as though intelligence has briefly replaced sympathy. From there, Bergson builds a theory of comedy as rigidity invading life. We laugh at clumsiness, practical jokes, absentmindedness, caricature, and even vice when they appear mechanical, repetitive, or fixed into habit. A stumble in the street, Menalque's dreamy distraction, or Don Quixote's heroic delusions all become comic because living adaptability gives way to automatism. Bergson also shows how laughter is social, requiring shared understanding and acting as a gentle corrective that keeps people alert, flexible, and responsive. He traces comic effect through repetition, inversion, and interference, revealing humor as both an art form and a subtle force in human society. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.