Laughing and crying reveal a person’s inner feelings and emotional capacities. It is not surprising, then, that from antiquity they have been the theme of philosophical reflection and adduced in interpretation of what is human. In keeping with modern differentiation of the academic disciplines, they have been taken up in interdisciplinary studies making use of philosophy, theology, aesthetics, literary studies, psychology, and sociology. They bring out both the comic and the tragic aspects of human life.

In all the detailed inquiries the main concern must be to see in l…