文藝復興時期人文主義學者關心人的課題，無論是宗教、文學、音樂、藝術等生活各個面向都可見其端倪，影響深遠甚至觸及感情和心理層面，這是從天國到塵世一個思想流變的過程。作為基本情緒表達，笑成為當代思想討論不可或缺一部分。由於崇尚古典文明，當時不少著名思想家重新檢視蘇格拉底、柏拉圖和亞里斯多德的作品，進而接觸希臘、羅馬時代重要議題：喜劇笑鬧是否合於禮教，由此他們展開笑的適切性辯證，如維渥斯(Juan Luis Vives , 1492-1540)在《靈魂的情緒》(The Passions of the Soul, 1538)裡面一章〈笑〉(Laughter)談到他對於笑和喜悅的看法，文詞間顯然承襲自古典學派的說法。同一時期，熟讀醫學典籍的醫家卻有其他觀察。像是法蘭西醫生茹貝爾(Laurent Joubert, 1529-1582)於1579 年出版醫學典籍《笑論》(Treatise of Laughter, 1579)，內文強調笑對身體療效，敘述人們透過這一行為改變不平衡的精神狀態，保持心智健全。不過，誠如文化史學家揭示般，整體而言，社會普遍存在縱情言笑的限制。綜觀文藝復興時期笑的論述，於古典體系底下，百花齊放，引起各方爭論的癥結點在於：到底引起笑的根本原因是什麼？這一問題影響日後歐洲思想發展，並且形成心理學的理論基礎。那麼，各家說法之間到底有什麼相似和差異？其論述的歷史發展如何？不同時代有關笑的醫學論述，是否存在連續與斷裂面向呢？其次，造成轉變的原因又是何在？本文試圖藉分析當代知識分子對於笑存在不同說法，藉此理清歷史演變的軌跡並回答問題。 本論文共計四章，第一章考察希臘羅馬時期哲學家和文人學者對於笑的態度， 同時介紹古典醫學理論，以了解文藝復興晚期歐洲的知識份子具有的情緒觀念， 以及背後存在的歷史淵源。第二章主要分析維渥斯與茹貝爾對於笑的看法，並且 描述中古時期基督教會系統如何解釋笑，以及中古世紀的醫學發展。第三章闡述 十七世紀有關笑的醫學論述，本文將深入探討十七世紀的醫學文獻，主要說明醫 者如何透過以體液說為主的古代醫學理論，綜合外在因素與身體內部的運行方式， 剖析笑的現象；另一方面，分析他們是怎麼透過解剖學知識來解釋笑發生的原因。 第四章為本文結論，根據前三章的分析，綜觀文藝復興晚期文人學者與醫家的理 論皆源自希臘和羅馬時期，爾後各自發展一套論述，哲學思想與古代醫學兩大理 論系統，共同形塑十六、十七世紀歐洲笑的觀念與情緒表達的方式。 / In the Renaissance, humanists concerned about issues regarding mankind, which is reflected on aspects of life including religion, literature, music, and arts, etc. This far-reaching influence even touches the emotional and psychological facets, representing a transformational process of thoughts from heaven to the mundane world. As a basic emotional expression, laughter has always been indispensable in the discussion on thoughts in the contemporary era. At that time, because of their appreciation for classical culture, many well-known thinkers re-examined the works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They then contacted the important issues of ancient Greece and Rome: whether laughter and joy in the comedy conformed to ethics; hence dialectic about the appropriateness of laughter began. For instance, one of the chapters in The Passions of the Soul, namely “Laughter”, Juan Luis Vives talked about his viewpoints of laughter and joy, which, between the lines, apparently followed the classicism. In the same period, a French doctor, Laurent Joubert, published a medical book titled Treatise of Laughter in 1579, emphasizing the curative effect of laughter and suggested that through this behavior people could treat their mental disorders and keep themselves healthy, physically and emotionally. However, as cultural historians revealed, in general, the content of constraints on laughing to one’s heart had commonly existed in the society. Overall, under the classical system, discourses on laughter in the Renaissance flourished, and the principles underlying different arguments lied on the reasons pertaining to the causes of the external behavior of laughter. This question influenced the later development of European thoughts, and formed the theoretical basis of psychology. Thus, what are the similarities and differences among various schools? How had their discourses developed? Are the medical discourses on laughter in the late Renaissance Europe continuous or discontinuous? In addition, what caused the transformation? The thesis tries to analyze the accounts of intellectuals in the late Renaissance Europe to figure out the historical developments and answer the questions above. This thesis has four chapters. The first chapter investigates the attitudes of the philosophers and humanists in ancient Greece and Rome towards laughter, and provides an introduction to the classical medical theory for understanding the historical context behind the emotional concepts of the intellectuals in the late Renaissance Europe. The second chapter focus on analyzing Vives’s and Joubert’s ideas on laughter. In addition, this chapter describes Christian interpretation of laughter and the development of medicine in the Middle Age. Chapter Three expounds the medical discourses on laughter in the seventeenth century, and will give an in-depth discussion on the contemporary medical literature to illustrate how doctors explained the cause of laughter through anatomy and how they, based on the ancient medical theory on Humourism, analyzed laughter by combining the external factors and the internal operation in the body. Chapter Four sums up the thesis. Based on the previous three chapters, all the theories of the humanists and doctors derived from ancient Greece and Rome, and developed into two main theoretical systems, philosophy and medical science, respectively. Together they shaped the concept of laughter and emotional expressions in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe.