2020-09-19
23 分钟Thanks to everyone out there that supports the show on Patreon, patreon.com, slash, philosophize this.
Thanks to the people that contribute what they want for the back catalog of the show on PayPal.
And thanks to everyone out there who's leaving a comment,
leaving a review, helping to keep philosophical conversations like this going between people.
Could never do this without you.
So maybe the best place to begin this episode is to talk about laughter as a marker of happiness.
Should we consider laughter to be a true marker of happiness?
Like if we see someone who laughs all the time.
Can we reasonably assume that that person is happy?
Well, if not, can we assume that laughter is a good thing for us in and of itself?
I think most people would say it is.
I think most people would say we should try to laugh as much as possible.
Laughter is one of the most joyful experiences you can possibly have as a human being.
Don't believe me, look at any antidepressant commercial.
I mean, when they're reading off all the side effects, there's always somebody frolicking through the park,
laughing about something, don't know exactly what, but they sure look a lot happier than me.
But what's funny is, regardless of how much we value laughter and aim towards it in our daily lives,
when philosophers throughout history have tried to take a philosophical approach towards understanding why we laugh at things,
the reasons we laugh often seem to carry with them some sort of negative connotation.
We'll be looking at a few of them here today.