Wit, humor and laughter as serious categories of civility according to Vico

Abstract

In this essay, the author establishes a direct connection between A Factual Digression on Human Genius, Sharp, Witty Remarks, and Laughter, as presented in Vico’s Vici Vindiciae, and the theses of the New Science regarding the “true” faculty of wit and the exclusive human nature of laughter. Thus, laughter –along with wit– is presented as a key element in the chain of human development, that is, as representing the transition from to “bestial man” to the “human man” (“uomo ridente”).