Save the date for a talk by our 2022-23 grant recipient Pierre Destrée! This talk is sponsored by the History of Philosophy Forum in cooperation with Notre Dame's Workshop on Ancient Philosophy.
Title: "Aristotle on Philosophical Humor"
Abstract: As ancient reports attest, Aristotle never missed an opportunity to make a joke. And it is well known that he wrote a treatise on comedy (the famous lost second book of the Poetics) and that he considered "good sense of humor" (eutrapelia) as a virtue. But as some scholars have also noticed, it is not uncommon to find jokes, puns and other wordplay in his own philosophical arguments, even in very serious and important passages. In this presentation, I will address the pressing question of why Aristotle made such unexpected use of jokes, and how this may make a difference in our reading of these passages.