Problem of the Comical in “Aesthetics” by Nicolai Hartmann

Abstract

This paper deals with the review of the comic phenomenon in Nicolai Hartmann’s Aesthetics. First, the problem of indefinability, which is characteristic to the theories of laughter, is presented, and then the basic settings of Hartmann’s phenomenological philosophical system, with determination of aesthetics’ place in it, are examined. The main part of the paper focuses on the phenomenon of the comic, which is viewed from the perspective of the theory of betrayed expectations. Hartmann makes a distinction between the comic, which is characteristic of an object, and laughter as a reaction to the comic. Emphasizing the connection between laughter and ethics, he distinguishes humor, which includes the positive ethos, and blank comic entertainment, joke, irony and sarcasm, based on the negative ethos. Comic phenomenon is observed by the principles of the stratifi ed structure of the piece of art. The paper aims to show the advantages and disadvantages of this approach to the problem of comic.