ROUTLEDGE COMPANIONS TO THE ROUTLEDGE PHILOSOPHY COMPANION TO AESTHETICS Routledge Companions to Philosophy offer thorough, high quality surveys of all the majar ropics in philosophy. Covering the key problems, themes and thinkers in i cach topic, all entries are specially commissioned for each volume and written by Edited by Berys Gaut leading scholars in the field. Clear, accessible and carefully edited and organised, and Dominic Mclver Lopes Routledge Companions to Philosophy are indispensable for anyone coming to a major topic in philosophy for the firs cime as well as the more advanced reader. TLE. eee. me m a e London and New York sy Tr —— ——" il ™First published 2001 by Rowledge 1 New Feter Lane, London ECAP AEE Snulaneously published in dhe USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Stee, New York, NY 10001 Fist published in paperback 2002 Routledge isa imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Growp {© 2001, 2002 Betys Gaut and Dominic Melver Lopes fr selection and ‘toca mater; individual contributors, thee comtrbatnns. Typeset in Sabon by 19 Publishing Services Ltd, Nowwich ringed and Bowrad 41 Great Brit by 1) Iogernational Led, Padstow, Comnoall [Als eserved No part this hook may’ be reprinted or reproduced fiutlned in any form be by any electron, mechanical er meas, ins known or ereafer vented. nclading, phowwcupying and receding, ‘ori any wor ‘or retrieval syste, wit person st from the publish ritish Library Cataliguing im Publication Data ‘A catalogue revord far this bok avaiable fom the Bris Library. Laary of Congress Cater sm Publication Data [Natal revered fr his book has be requested: ISBN 0-415-20737-1 (adi ISBN 0-415-29022-4 (pbk) CONTENTS List of figures Notes on contributors Preface PART History of aesthetics 1 Plato (CHRISTOPHER JANAWAY 2 Aristotle 3. Medieval aesthetics JOSEREL MARGOLIS 4 Empiricism: Hutcheson and Hume JAMES SHELLEY 5 Kant 6 Hegel MICHAEL INWOOD 7 Nietasche RUBEN BERRIOS AND AARON RIDLEY 8 Formalism NOEL CARROLL 9 Pragmatism: Dewey RICHARD SHUSIERMAN 1s 7 37 st 65 75 87 9732 HUMOR Ted Cohen Humor is a marvelous subject for philosophers of art, The breadth of the subject is enormous. Humor is to be found in canonical works of art: plays, movies, stories, novels, paintings, operas and so forth. And it is found in contexts not typically assoviaced with art: jokes, wit in ordinary conversation and even in events t0 be witnessed in the world, like umbrellas blowing inside-out, dogs chasing their tails or a baby grabbing the nose of an intrusive adule. Thus humor is found both in and outside art, in both fictional and real contexts. This suggests, what is almost certainly true, that there can be no general, overarching ‘theory’ of humor, unless the theory is so general and probably vague as to be utterly uninformative. There have been such theories, and they can be found described in the excellent encyclopedia entries listed in this essay’s bibliography, but they will be discussed only briefly in this essay. Instead, this essay will suggest a more general theory, but also say why neither this theory nor any other is likely co be definitive. Eighteenth-century philosophers were accustomed to thinking of some human capacity as a ‘sense of beauty,’ by which they meant a capacity to be affected by beauty. Although that way of thinking has lapsed, along with thoughts of a ‘sense Of morality’ or ‘sense of virtue,’ itis still common to speak of a ‘sense of humox,” presumably meaning by that a capacity to be affected by humorous things; and this is not a bad way to begif thinking about humor. For instance, one might start with an inaocuous formulation like this: H is humorous if and only if P finds it funny. This formulation is reminiscent of eighteenth-century ethics and aesthetics, where we find propositions like these: B is beautiful if and only if P is pleased by it. V is virtuous if and only if P is pleased by (or approves of) it. 375