Enjoyment - Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

Philosophy, art criticism and popular opinion all seem to treat
the aesthetics of the comic as lightweight, while the tragic seems to
be regarded with greater seriousness. Why this favouring of sadness
over joy? Can it be justified? What are the criteria by which the
significance of comedy can be estimated vis
vis
tragedy? Questions such as these underlie the present selection of
studies, which casts new light on the comic, the joyful and laughter
itself. This challenge to the popular attitude strikes into new
territory, relating such matters to the profundity with which we enjoy
life and its role in the deployment of the Human Condition. In her
Introduction Tymieniecka points out that the tragic and the comic
might be complementary in their respective sense-bestowing modes as
well as in their dynamic functions; they might both share in the
primogenital function of promoting the self-individualising progress
of human existence.

For the first time in philosophy, laughter, mirth, joy and the like
are revealed as the modalities of the essential enjoyment of life,
being brought to bear in an illumination of the human condition.