Aesthetics of laughter. Laughter as a virtual reality. Ryumina M.T.

This book is devoted to a philosophical and aesthetic study of laughter as a phenomenon of culture. It considers the widest circle of problems associated with laughter and comic. The work analyzes the most significant theories of laughter in the history of philosophy, in particular the theory of Aristotle, G. V. F. Hegel, A. Schopenhauer, A. Bergson, Z. Freud and others. In the original author’s concept, laughter is defined as a phenomenon built on “ The game of illusions ”and thereby directly related to virtual reality. The book also presents essays on the history of laughter (about ritual laughter, about the emergence of comedy and tragedy, about medieval laughter, etc.). The meaning of the problem of laughter in the modern sociocultural situation is specially considered.

The book will be interesting not only to specialists - philosophers, philologists, historians, psychologists, culturalists, art historians, but also a wide range of readers.