Le rire des esprits forts. Sur les Réflexions sur les grands hommes qui sont morts en plaisantant d'André-François Deslandes

摘要

The laughter of free-thinkers. The rehabilitation of laughter in Réflexions sur les grands hommes qui sont morts en plaisantant. Can one laugh at anything, even death ? In this work originally published in 1712, André-François Deslandes, unlike Christian moralists, does not hesistate to compare laughter to wisdom and to praise free-thinkers. In this article, we insist on the author's method of standing Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld and Pascal on their heads. For Deslandes there is a type of philosophy which can reconcile life and death without resorting to religion. The capacity to laugh at death or to joke with it is part of a lifestyle. His work answers La Bruyère' s question as to whether free-thinkers know that they are called "esprits-forts" (strong minds) ironically, by saying that they practice a demanding and light-hearted type of wisdom. While rehabilitating laughter, Deslandes denounces the ulterior motives behind the moralising campaigns which impose mystifying seriousness.