Joyful lightness and jovial insightedness. On Hegel’s idea of the comic and the humoristic as forms of a aesthetic-poetic skepsis

Abstract

Ancient Pyrrhonism resembles a sphinx. It claims to be a way of life and thought, a narrative on how the individual is to live his life, and a principle against any sort of dogmatism. In so far as it declines to make any definite st atement, Pyrrhonism typically entails a trend towards narrative and sits in the border between Philosophy and Literature. In his Lectures on Aesthetics, Hegel considers the comic and humor as forms of the poetic-literary Skepsis and defines the modem humoristic novel as the supreme form of art. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, the novel by Lawrence Sterne, serves as the paradigm of "negative", i.e. anti-dogmatic, humoristic fiction. It is also the base for Modem subjectivity, as overcoming of the freedom ofthe character, in the way preached by Pyrrho. Modem subjectivity demands a total skepsis. Otherwise, even the concept of Subjectivity itself is unconceivable. Besides, unless there is freedom for humor, it is impossible to have a fair idea of what it means to be free. Il is in this sense that Modernity is the epoch of poetic and philosophical Skepsis. It is also the time of its inclusion. Tristram Shandy constitutes the paradigm of Representing Self-relation while the Phenomenology of the Mind constitutes the paradigm of Thinking Self-relation. Hence, Humoristic Subjectivity and Thinking Subjectivity could be s aid to be the paradigms of Modern Literature and Philosophy, where Pyrrhonism is "overcome "