Ewin, R. E. “Hobbes on Laughter.”

Ewin, R. E. “Hobbes on Laughter.” The Philosophical Quarterly 51.202 (2001) : 29 – 40.

Drawing on Hobbes' wider corpus and contemporay accounts of his character, Ewin argues that Hobbes oft-quoted remarks on laughter should not be understood as a dismisal of laughter all together as a generally disagreable condition. Rather, Ewin suggests, Hobbes considers laughter at another's misfortune to be symptomatic of a particularly uncharitable and malicious passion that does not befit a great mind or a gentleman. Thus, Hobess does not rule out all laughter, but simply that which lacks compassion, which Ewin argues is the often overlooked central tenet of Hobbes's political and social theory.