Basic writings of Nietzsche - By Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche & Walter Arnold Kaufmann Page 0,185

comparison wherewith their own abilities are set off and illustrated. Also men laugh at jests, the wit whereof always consisteth in the elegant discovering and conveying to our minds some absurdity of another: and in this case also the passion of laughter proceedeth from the sudden imagination of our own odds and eminency…. For when a jest is broken upon ourselves, or friends of whose dishonour we participate, we never laugh thereat. I may therefore conclude, that the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly: for men laugh at the follies of themselves past…Besides, it is vain glory, and an argument of little worth, to think the infirmity of another, sufficient matter for his triumph.”

The parallel passage in the Leviathan (1651), Part I, Chapter 6, which is much shorter, ends: “And it is incident most to them, that are conscious of the fewest abilities in themselves; who are forced to keep themselves in their own favour, by observing the imperfections of other men. And therefore much Laughter at the defects of others is a signe of Pusillanimity. For of great minds, one of the proper workes is, to help and free others from scorn; and compare themselves onely with the most able.”

Finally, in “The Answer of Mr. Hobbes to Sir William Davenant’s Preface before Gondibert” (Paris, Jan. 10, 1650; reprinted in The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, vol. IV, 1840) Hobbes says (pp. 454f.): “Great persons, that have their minds employed on great designs, have not leisure enough to laugh, and are pleased with the contemplation of their own power and virtues, so as they need not the infirmities and vices of other men to recommend themselves to their own favour by comparison, as all men do when they laugh.”

Hobbes is evidently thinking quite literally of laughter while for Nietzsche laughter represents an attitude toward the world, toward life, and toward oneself. In The Gay Science (1882) he had written: “Laughter means: to rejoice at another’s expense [schadenfroh sein], but with a good conscience” (section 200). And still earlier, in Human, All-Too-Human (1878): “Descending below the animals.—When man neighs with laughter, he surpasses all animals by his vulgarity” (section 553). But in the second volume of the same work (1879) we find an aphorism (section 173): “Laughing and smiling.—The more joyous and certain his spirit becomes, the more man unlearns loud laughter; instead a more spiritual smile constantly wells up in him….” And in a note of that period (Musarion edition, IX, 413): “Everything sudden pleases if it does no harm; hence wit…. For a tension is thus released….” And another note (same page): “Caricature is the beginning of art. That something signifies, delights. That whatever signifies, should mock and be laughed at, delights still more. Laughing at something is the first sign of a higher psychic life (as in the fine arts).”

In spite of the title The Gay Science, Nietzsche’s celebration of laughter is encountered first and foremost in Zarathustra. To cite all the relevant passages (Portable Nietzsche) would be pointless, but the three most significant should be mentioned.

“Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!” (“On Reading and Writing,”).

“As yet he has not learned laughter or beauty. Gloomy this hunter returned from the woods of knowledge…. But I do not like these tense souls…. As yet his knowledge has not learned to smile…. Gracefulness is part of the graciousness of the great-souled…. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws” (“On Those Who Are Sublime,”, one of the most important chapters in Nietzsche’s writings).

“What has so far been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said, ‘Woe unto those who laugh here’?…He did not love enough: else he would also have loved us who laugh. But he hated and mocked us: howling and gnashing of teeth he promised us…. Laughter I have pronounced holy; you higher men, learn to laugh!” (“On the Higher Man,” sections 16 and 20).

For Nietzsche laughter becomes less a physical phenomenon than a symbol of joyous affirmation of life and of the refusal to bow before the spirit of gravity.

42 Cf. section 42, note: Versucher-Gott could also mean “god of experimenters.”

43 Some of the features of this portrait bring to mind Socrates. In this connection