Poderia o riso emendar a tristeza?

This article focuses on laughter (as an expression of hilaritas) as a possible way to operate the Spinozan emendatio, in the sense of arranging the body and mind, through training and instruction provided by a confluence of joyful affects, towards the strengthening and growing maintenance of their capacity to act. However, why did we choose laughter, seemingly a more physical manifestation of hilarity, as the privileged point of analysis? This choice is justified through the interpretation provided by Henri Bergson in his essays on the comic. As satirical censure and an act of correction, the laughter observed by the French contemporary philosopher aims to restore the spontaneity of subjects that are detached from the duration and intuition of the world. To recover this intuitive creativity — which correlates with Spinoza’s concept of happiness, the scope of the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, which is effectively fulfilled in the Ethics—is the goal of our study.