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The concept of "humors" may have origins in Ancient Egyptian medicine, [1] or Mesopotamia, [2] though it was not systemized until ancient Greek thinkers. The word humor is a translation of Greek χυμός, [3] chymos (literally 'juice' or 'sap', metaphorically 'flavor').
The superiority theory of humor traces back to Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. The general idea is that a person laughs about the misfortunes of others because they assert their superiority based on the shortcomings of others. [15] Another tenet of the theory is that we feel superior to the person who is the target of a joke.
The theory stated that within every individual there were four humours, or principal fluids – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, these were produced by various organs in the body, and they had to be in balance for a person to remain healthy. Too much phlegm in the body, for example, caused lung problems; and the body tried to cough ...
During the Middle Ages, the term "comedy" became synonymous with satire, and later with humour in general. Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers, such as Abu Bishr, and his pupils Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes.
Medieval poetic theory, however, did not regard comedy and elegy as mutually exclusive, nor identical. John of Garland wrote "all comedy is elegy, but the reverse is not true." Other arguments raised against the dramatic performance of the comedies is, in general, their large number of narrative segments as opposed to dialogue.
View history; Tools. Tools. move to sidebar hide. Actions ... Humor theory may refer to: Humorism, an ancient and medieval medical theory that there are four body fluids;
Galen contributed a substantial amount to the understanding of pathology. Under the Hippocratic bodily humors theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments. [46]
Analysis on elements and functions of laughter and humor date back to Ancient Greece (384 BCE to 322 BCE) and Roman empire (106—43 B.C.E). Most notably, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero formulated early theories on the function of humor and laughter and paved the way for further philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes (17th century) to expand their positions.