Can one scientifically explain humor?

SherlockH May 18, 2018 at 20:03 1950 views 3 comments Philosophy of Mind

If you laugh at something it might be you thought it was funny. You can scientifically explain most emotions and the possible reason for them. Fear is to keep you safe, sadness is when something traumatic happened and crying releases hormones, anger is often linked to fight or flight response. Its very easy to explain why we need these things. Happy is when things are going well. So what is"funny". How does one explain in a none emotional way. Is it possible animals beside humans have a humor?

Comments (3)

Artemis May 18, 2018 at 20:57 ¶ #179699 0 likes

I've read that humor evolved as a reward system for finding mistakes in behaviors, patterns, or causal relations.
For example, laughing at someone falling makes us more aware of how and why someone fell, thus making us less likely to do it.

SherlockH May 19, 2018 at 01:16 ¶ #179778 0 likes

Quoting NKBJ

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That is very interesing.

Wayfarer May 19, 2018 at 01:33 ¶ #179782 0 likes

You could, but it wouldn't be funny. (I would be instantly dismissive of attempts to 'explain' humour as a kind of adaptive trait, in biological terms.)

I seem to recall that one of Arthur Koestler's best-known books, The Act of Creation, was about this subject. (Koestler is not that well-known any more but was a very popular science, philosophy and culture write in the 1960's, some of his books were terrific.)