L'humour comme signe d'histoire

Lyotard deals with the issue of the humour as parody, pointing out its effectiveness in the political framework as a means to loosen the libidinal flow and thwart the power structures. Later he turns to Kantian sublime as regulative Idea of the judgment about just and unjust; Lyotard's concept of "enthusiasm" as a "sign of history" refers paradoxically to this regulative Idea, which eventually leads him to the only aesthetic alternative of unrestrained libidinal flows. According to Cohen, humour is the anticipated experience of infinity as it is experienced by individuals. This concept is related to the ethical virtue of "humanity", both from an aesthetic and political point of view: it is "benevolence", i.e. the relationship of people beyond the judgment, and "peace", i.e. the moving force of history. Humanity and humour can therefore be proposed in postmodern culture as a "sign of history", i.e. what precedes, enables and orients judgment about just and unjust. Moreover, anticipating peace, humour enables historical and political actions.