Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
because they have experienced something funny. It is much more difficult to know
humor by reasoning through a joke, convincing oneself that it is funny. Humor
results in a physical response such as laughter or a smile, or even mental
amusement. In any case, there is a highly discernable experience associated with
encountering humor —like Hobbes said, it “is always joy.” 16 Making note of this
allows us to understand the role of our own mental states in instantiating humor.
The factor that I believe is missing from the definition of humor is one I have
named receptivity; that is, the ability and will of a person to determine or accept a
situation to be a benign violation. This idea aligns well with our previous
experiences, in that anyone can fathom a situation where two people experience the
same benign violation, yet one finds it humorous and the other does not. Receptivity
may be characterized in three ways: by a person’s taste, mood, or attention level.
Taste refers more to a person’s ability to be receptive to a certain benign violation.
This, too, grounds out well: one can conceive of the notion that some people may be
more sensitive to irony than others, delight in sarcasm more than others, appreciate
clever puns more than others, or think goofy-looking motions or noises downright
hilarious more than others. Mood and attention level are variable elements that can
impact ability and will, though I would argue, influence will more so. Consider the
mood of the person in a drunken state, who may find any situation they are in
exceptionally funny; or the attention level of the student who is zoned in on their
homework and unreactive to their humorous friends around them, but upon taking
a break, engages immediately with their jokes. We can also imagine situations that
are indiscernible matters of taste, mood, or will, and are instead a combination of
any of the three. Sometimes the slightest thing can erupt a room in laughter; other
times something of that same magnitude evokes a mere chuckle, if any reaction at
all, and one can have no distinct explanation why. One can understand this same
concept when referencing the variation in our own senses of humor; there may be
16 Hobbes, The Elements of Law, 41.
Volume VI (2023)
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