A book that will make you better and happier

After publishing a few years ago A philosophy of fear, finalist for the Anagrama Essay Prize in 2021Bernat Castany Prado, philosopher and philologist, professor of literature at the UB, returns to bookstores with another delightful and highly recommended essay. A philosophy of laughterOnce again, we find an author who writes with a good rhythm, in an exuberant style, full of imagery, metaphors, and stylistic turns, yet maintains due restraint regarding the rigor of his ideas. The wit that characterizes the writing in this book is not exhausted by mere fireworks, but rather serves a way of life. Reading Professor Castany makes us better.

In this case, the book puts into practice what it preaches in theory, so we find hundreds of puns and lexical jokes that illustrate what the text explains, provoking uproarious laughter, feline smiles, and tears of hilarity. All of this is accompanied by erudite bibliographic references that are wielded with grace and lightness, so that the reader enjoys themselves as much as, or even more than, we imagine the author himself enjoyed writing the book.

An antidote to dogmatism

Here we don't find a definition of laughter or a phenomenology of comedy and humor, but rather a philosophy in the classical sense of the term, before this form of knowledge was absorbed and deactivated by academia and its demands for efficiency, productivity, and specialization. The philosophy of laughter we find here is an invitation to live in a certain way. Castany invites us to be happy, urges us to do good, to live a "good life," taking advantage of the impulse of solidarity that fuels the philosophical laughter that the readers of this text will emit on every page. Philosophical laughter is not just an involuntary release of air, but an expression and channel of knowledge, a way of manifesting a healthy skepticism—not resigned, but full of life. Certainly, the aggressive aspects of humor are still present, the fact that laughter can and does serve to assert one's own identity in relation to others, to point out and discriminate, but the philosophy of laughter outlined here urges us to live better, to recognize the plurality of the world and to practice what, borrowing Fernando IwasakiHe calls it "humor for one's neighbor."

Bernat Castany is a voracious reader, a multifaceted intellectual with diverse interests and fascinations, a joyful philosopher, and a jovial interpreter of classical literature and thought from all eras. Lucretius, Lucian of Samosata, Montaigne, Spinoza, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Cervantes, and a long list of other classical authors and lesser-known figures—small and great treasures, jewels of wisdom—circulate through these pages, polished by the author with the care of a goldsmith and the joy of jewels. Numerous surprising and illuminating quotations shine like pearls, serving a philosophical reflection that is not so much profound as sharp and insightful, dedicated to the expansion of the spirit and a love for life and for ourselves, accepting our shortcomings with magnificent modesty.

Castany applies the Horatian principle of "teaching by delighting" with playful seriousness. According to philosophy, the first thing to be learned is self-knowledge, that is, knowledge of all that we do not know—in other words, cognitive humility. If we laugh while following the wise guidance offered in this splendid book, we will have the perfect antidote to the dogmatism, fears, and stupidities that always threaten to colonize the world and our souls.