In my book Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... on page 54-55 there is a joke discussing the philosophical idea of empiricism. This idea was pioneered by George Berkely in the 18th century he said "Esse est percipi" which basically means "To be is to be perceived". This means that the world and all our discoveries in the world are found in the brain through our sensory information. So without this vital sense data you cannot really know anything until you have observed and experienced it. This idea means that you cannot assume anything because all the things we know must be gained by first hand experience.
Here is a joke on this subject:
"A man is worried that his wife is losing her hearing, so he consults a doctor. The doctor suggests that he try a simple at home test on her: Stand behind her and ask her a question, first from twenty feet away, next from ten feet, and finally right next to her.
So the man goes home and sees his wife in the kitchen facing the stove. He says from the door, "What's for dinner tonight?" No answer.
Ten feet behind her he says, "Whats for dinner tonight?" Still no answer.
Finally, right behind her he says, "What's for dinner tonight?"
And his wife turns around and says, "For the third time- Chicken!"
So his incorrect theory that his wife was losing her hearing came from HIS incorrect sense data which said to him. "Since she doesnt respond to my qustions she must be losing her hearing!" but in reality he wasn't hearing her response to his questions so infact he is the one losing his hearing. Thats ironic.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Post #2
This is a joke from p33-34 of my book Plato and a Platapus Walk Into a Bar.
This joke is based of the idea that in order for a theory to be true, there must be some circmstance that would prove it false. Like in orde for the idea that God is real to be absolutly true it must be possible for there to be a way to disprove it, since there is no real way to disprove God you cannot assume that it is real. Since there is no way to disprove some ideas you cannot just asume they are true, this is shown in a joke from my book.
Two men are making breakfast. As one is buttering the toast, he says, "Did you ever notice that if you drop a piece of toast, it always lands butter side down?" The second guy says, "No, I bet it just seems that way because it's so unpleasent to clean up the mess when it lands butter side down. I bet it lands butter side up just as often." The first guy says, "Oh, yeah? Watch this." He drops the toast to the floor, where it lands butter side up. The second gu says, "See, I told you." The first guy says, "OH, I see what happened. I buttered the wrong side!?
From this joke you can see that there is no possible way to disprove his theory because he has decided that instead of landing butter side up the toast was simple buttered on the wrong side. So the buttered side did end up down in the end. Another example of this is when it comes to the idea that aliens are real. Some say "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" which means that just because you cannot prove they are real doesnt mean that they cant be real, so unless you are able to check the entire universe for aliens and dont find any then and only then will the believers be convinced otherwise.
This joke is based of the idea that in order for a theory to be true, there must be some circmstance that would prove it false. Like in orde for the idea that God is real to be absolutly true it must be possible for there to be a way to disprove it, since there is no real way to disprove God you cannot assume that it is real. Since there is no way to disprove some ideas you cannot just asume they are true, this is shown in a joke from my book.
Two men are making breakfast. As one is buttering the toast, he says, "Did you ever notice that if you drop a piece of toast, it always lands butter side down?" The second guy says, "No, I bet it just seems that way because it's so unpleasent to clean up the mess when it lands butter side down. I bet it lands butter side up just as often." The first guy says, "Oh, yeah? Watch this." He drops the toast to the floor, where it lands butter side up. The second gu says, "See, I told you." The first guy says, "OH, I see what happened. I buttered the wrong side!?
From this joke you can see that there is no possible way to disprove his theory because he has decided that instead of landing butter side up the toast was simple buttered on the wrong side. So the buttered side did end up down in the end. Another example of this is when it comes to the idea that aliens are real. Some say "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" which means that just because you cannot prove they are real doesnt mean that they cant be real, so unless you are able to check the entire universe for aliens and dont find any then and only then will the believers be convinced otherwise.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Post 1
my book is titled "Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar..." By Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein.
This book is about understanding basic philisophical principles through the medium of jokes and comedy.
An excerpt from this book on the subject of Inductive Logic (the type of logic sherlock holmes uses, not deduction) this logic is used when after observing something happen enough times, say an fruit falling from a tree you can form a hypothesis that fruits will always fall down. Then you can induct that all things fall down from the way that you saw the fruit falling from. This is a joke that uses this logic.
"Holmes and Watson are on a camping trip. in the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Dr. Watson a nudge. "Watson," he says, "Look up at the sky and tell me what you see".
"I see millions of stars, Holmes" says watson.
"And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"
Watson thinks for a moment. "Well" he says, "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that saturn is in leo. Horologically, I DEDUCE that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorogically, I suspect that we will have a beutiful day tomorrow. Theologically I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what do you see Holmes?"
"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!"
Holmes came to this conclusion because they fell asleep under a tent and knowing that tents dont walk away on their own he induced that the tent was taken for that is the most likely course of events. Watson howeve misunderstands Holmes' question and believes that Holmes is testing his intellegence in different fields and fails to notice that when he fell asleep he was under a tent and when he awoke he was looking at the sky. Inductinve logic is part of human nature so that we can identify patterns which give us more general knowledge of the world around us.
This book is about understanding basic philisophical principles through the medium of jokes and comedy.
An excerpt from this book on the subject of Inductive Logic (the type of logic sherlock holmes uses, not deduction) this logic is used when after observing something happen enough times, say an fruit falling from a tree you can form a hypothesis that fruits will always fall down. Then you can induct that all things fall down from the way that you saw the fruit falling from. This is a joke that uses this logic.
"Holmes and Watson are on a camping trip. in the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Dr. Watson a nudge. "Watson," he says, "Look up at the sky and tell me what you see".
"I see millions of stars, Holmes" says watson.
"And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"
Watson thinks for a moment. "Well" he says, "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that saturn is in leo. Horologically, I DEDUCE that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorogically, I suspect that we will have a beutiful day tomorrow. Theologically I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what do you see Holmes?"
"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!"
Holmes came to this conclusion because they fell asleep under a tent and knowing that tents dont walk away on their own he induced that the tent was taken for that is the most likely course of events. Watson howeve misunderstands Holmes' question and believes that Holmes is testing his intellegence in different fields and fails to notice that when he fell asleep he was under a tent and when he awoke he was looking at the sky. Inductinve logic is part of human nature so that we can identify patterns which give us more general knowledge of the world around us.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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