La moralité de l’humour

Abstract
The article traces Shaftesbury’s invention of humour as a critique of enthusiasm, an invention that is part of a debate on Hobbesian anthropology and the reading of laughter as an affirmation of its superiority. Shaftesbury sets up the new coordinates of moral thought, between reductionism and theology, which will be systematically elaborated by Francis Hutcheson with the theory of moral sense. It is laughter that serves as the experiment for the new form of disinterested subjectivity that inspires these two authors. The philosophies of sympathy will extend some of these emphases. We conclude with a discussion of the politics of laughter and the relevance of Shaftesbury and Hutcheson.

In: Vol. 14 No. 28 (2025): The Prism of Sympathy of Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas