Our first Food for Thought of the semester will be Friday, 9/20 from 12-1PM in the Club Room. Professor Ralkowski, one of our esteemed honors faculty, will be giving a talk over a catered lunch. Make sure to RSVP to reserve your seat and your sandwich!

Title: The Consolations of Humor

Description: The ancient Greek philosophers thought humor was bad for us. Some thought it could overthrow the rule of reason in the soul, while others argued that it involved maliciously taking pleasure in the ignorance of others. Modern philosophers have made related criticisms, associating humor with irrationality and feelings of superiority. In our own time, philosophers are not the only people who have raised concerns about the anti-social characteristics of humor. In what The New York Times has called “the most discussed comedy special in ages,” Nanette, Hannah Gadsby presents an argument against comedy as a whole. The point of this talk is to explain how humor has an indispensable role to play in a philosophical life, one that the ancients would have appreciated if they had understood humor’s possibilities differently, and one that helps us make sense of the extraordinary popularity and significance of Hannah Gadsby’s breakout performance in Nanette.