If I'm reading Hobbes correctly, and I believe I am, as I took a college course in Calvin and Hobbes called Absurdities 101 (the class was cancelled after one session because the professor drove his wagon over a cliff), I think he's saying most things in life are absurd, and make no sense.
Therefore, laughter is the only rational response to it.
Proving that even though life is absurd, we were smart enough to develop an evolutionary neurological reaction in order to deal with it in a healthy way. A technique that benefits stand up comedians.
And sometimes smart aleck Quora writers.
Consider this very question. Here you are asking a question about a stuffed tiger, and his insightful observation about life. If that isn't absurd, what is?
I'm more familiar with Hobbes's philosophical statements than I am with Nietzsche's. I don't even know how to SPELL Nietzsche!
The typing monitor knows, so that's cool.
I've answered a question on Quora addressing this very issue, about what sets us apart from animals, and my response was that humans laugh. I've never seen or heard an animal laugh.
Imitative sounds don't count; we're never sure if they really GET the joke. If they do get it, then why can't they explain it to me?
Even Hobbes rarely laughs, unless Calvin tickles him. He's wry, sarcastic, sardonic, sometimes witty, but is modest enough not to laugh at his own witticisms.
And yet, he's deep enough to realize that he himself may very well be absurd.
Except he's never absurd. Calvin is absurd, and is caught up in the absurdities of his own life, but he finds solace in his stuffed tiger, who always makes sense.
One of the first absurdities I remember hearing was from my own father.
When he'd overhear us complain about school, he'd tell us that when he was a kid, he had to walk ten miles to school, through knee deep snow (even in July), going uphill both directions.
He lived in Texas, and probably never saw snow before the age of 18, and walking uphill both directions was an iffy proposition at best. But what clued us in to the absurdity was that he only lived a mile from school.
Why would he walk NINE miles past his school, and then nine back, just to get there?
Read other answers by Gigi J Wolf on Quora:
- What things in life should be a secret in your opinion?
- What five don'ts have you learnt from others' failures, life experiences?
- What has your life taught you so far?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2cZAMCB
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