Introduction

Stephen West: Laughter is one of the most joyful experiences you can possibly have as a human being. He says that despite how much we value laughter and aim towards it in our daily lives, when philosophers try to understand why we laugh often seem to carry with them some sort of negative connotation. The first theories offered for why we laugh at things came out of ancient Greece - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In both comedy and tragedy, there's often a problem that arises. Both formats usually cite the reality that we live in a world of complex competing forces which are mostly out of our control.