La lleugeresa de l’ànima: humor al Fedó de Plató

The focus of this paper is the presence of humor in Plato’s Phaedo. Ironies, jokes, comical references and laughter are elements often unnoticed in this dialogue, but they offer helpful interpretative hints to understand the discussion about the immortality of the soul as a quarrel with traditional and popular views; they also shed new light on the Phaedo’s arguments and doctrines, no less than on Socrates’ attitude of rational confidence, which he tries to transmit moments before his own death. Based on previous studies about humor in Plato’s writings, an attentive reading shows that humor and its vocabulary are no less constant and structural in the most famous philosophical tragedy, and that some lightheartedness which previously seemed out of place can be a defining feature not only of an enriched comprehension of the Phaedo, but also of the immortal soul it talks about.