Resisting my native compulsions, I went on past it without completing the assignment. Their approach is unabashedly entertaining, and I wish I'd had this light-hearted treatment on hand when I was a philosophy student but it also rests on a very sound premise for which I've always had immense respect, namely, the efficacy of humor as a vehicle for truth: something cartoonists and satirists know very well.Watch out, though: there are pop quizzes along the way and a three-point exam at the end. It's their gift to be able to encapsulate the chief ideas of several branches of philosophy-metaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics, and so on-and convey their essential qualities through jokes.
But I loved this little book.What that cow story has to do with existentialism may not be immediately apparent, but the authors will make it clear. There's a lot of supposed comedy that I just don't care for at all. People's senses of humor are pretty idiosyncratic, after all. If you're giggling too, then you and I have something in common.If you think it's just dumb, well, never mind. But this silly two-liner on page 120 just struck me as hilarious. "I'm a helicopter."There's humor in much of what I read, but it's usually of the cerebral variety, mild irony or absurdity, witty turns of phrase, that sort of thing even Harry Dresden's wisecracks aren't usually laugh-out-loud funny. One says to the other, "What do you think about this mad cow disease?""What do I care?" says the other. Extended review:Do you think this is funny? Two cows are standing in a field. Six-word review: Wisdom is a fool in motley.
0 kommentar(er)
