Wednesday, February 24, 2010

THE PHILOSOPHY BOYS


INT. MENS CLUB: Several Philosophy Boys relax near the hearth.



BERTRAND: "You really have to explain yourself Philip. Why do you buy into the idea that liberal arts courses should have as their goal the improvement of character and judgement? I'd have thought the quest for truth was more important."



PHILIP: "Well, it seems to me that only a person of character would recognize the truth when he found it."



PAULI: "He's got you there, Bertrand. Without character you're unlikely even to search for truth."




BERTRAND: "True enough Pauli, but truth still matters. You don't want to waste your life upholding assertions that turn out not to be true.

Um, Ira, what are you writing?"



IRA: "Just jotting down notes. Mainly I want to say that nobody can agree on what the truths are in the liberal arts. In the absence of certainty, character and judgement are all the tools we have to navigate the facts."



MACMILLAN: "But surely character is something you're born with. How do you educate for it?"



RUSSELL: "By the example of first-rate teachers and first-rate fellow students, and by studying the right texts. Since character counted for a lot in the ancient world, that means reading and discussing the Greeks and Romans. In addition to the standard authors, I'm thinking of authors like Homer, Xenephon, Polybius, Cicero, Plutarch, Marcus Arelius, Caesar and Tacitus."



WILLIAM: "Caesar and Tacitus? Those seem like odd choices, if you only had to choose a few."



SHERLOCK: "Ah, I get it. They're there as examples of manliness. It's a word you can't define, but everyone knows it when they see it, and it's universally admired. Combine manliness with intellect, vision, and the ability to do hard work, and you have something approaching the ideal."



GLADYS: "Yeah, manliness....I'll buy that."


PHILOSOPHY BOYS (ALL AT ONCE): "GASP!!!!!! A girl!!!! A GIRL in the MENS club!!!! How did she get in? We'll all be kicked out forever!"



THOMAS: "Wait a minute, wait a minute! I've got an idea! Gentlemen, I move that we regard this young lady as an honorary man for the night! What say you?"

PHILOSOPHY BOYS (ALL, RELIEVED): "Here, here!!!!!"

THOMAS: "The motion carries! She's a man!"




JOSEPH: "Whoa, wait a minute! If she can be a man, then I want my dog to be a man, too. He's over there, under the 'No Pets' sign."

PHILOSOPHY BOYS: "What!? A DOG!!!?? No way! No way!"



DOG: "Hey, hey! If you don't want me in your stupid old club, then I don't want to be here. I mean...GEEEEZ!"




24 comments:

Danny said...

Hey, Eddie!
It's Danny from the Archive Podcast.
I love philosophy! Maybe we'll have you back on the podcast one day to talk about it!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Danny: Sounds good! Let's do it! There's lots to discuss!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Your comment looked like spam, so I deleted it. Let me know if I made a mistake.

Anonymous said...

*sigh* I miss smoking a pipe. It was the coolest thing ever .

Hans Flagon said...

Tweed Jacket with Elbow Patches. Check. Prince Albert in the Can. Check. Meerschaum. Check.

Jennifer said...

Hilarious! The punchline with the dog was great.

When will you be opening the Theory Corner Store?

talkingtj said...

hilarious-i wish my liberal art classes were more theory corner-i gotta ask- after studying liberal arts for 2 years-what exactly is "liberal arts"?

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jennifer: Thanks! And the Theory Corner Store'll be open in a month or less. It would have been up weeks ago if I hadn't gotten off track in order to learn programs. I really have no choice. I'll be permanently unemployed if I don't catch up to where I need to be with Photoshop, Flash and Storyboard Pro.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Talking: Interesting question! I don't know the answer, but it sounds like something that would be easy to find on the net. For me finding the historical definitions of words is an impediment to thinking. It bogs you down in linguistic quicksand. It's better to assume a common definition and go on from there.

I don't mean that you were attempting to obfuscate. You were just curious about a term, and that's perfectly natural.

Anonymous said...

Hilarious! You should cover Russell vs. Wittgenstein next.

Paul Penna said...

In reality, Edison would be saying "What? What??? I can't hear you!" And wind up being saner for it.

Anonymous said...

A woman?!?! Here?!?! I won't stand for it!

Jenny and Jennifer, what do you think of this?

Lester Hunt said...

Gotta love that first picture. Bertie Russell pointing at someone with his middle finger. I could use that in a slide for one of my philosophy lectures.

Jenny Lerew said...

Don't worry Jorge, it's just a pretty ringer called "Gladys". No danger of actual Ayns or Simones here, eh Edward?

; )

By the way, I wonder at you that you've never done a post just about Bertrand Russell.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jenny: I think I accidentally deleted your comment about Bertrand Russell. You're right, I should do a whole blog on him.

Jenny Lerew said...

Yes you should!
And I also added-with wink-that 'Gladys' should go, and make room for Ayn and Simone. : )

Jenny Lerew said...

But hold-you didn't delete it.
And I just reposted it. This is what happens when I post from a phone.
To make this additional prattle from me worthwhile I'll just add: the amount of pipe smoking among the philosopher gents is damned impressive.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jenny: Haw! Well, maybe Ayn and Simone will show up in one of the posts about The Philosophy Girls.

Anonymous said...

The classic Philosophy professor joke about objectivism: "My colleagues debate whether or not Ayn Rand was really a philosopher... I debate whether or not Ayn Rand was really a woman."

pappy d said...

Gladys, or good ol' Lumpy to her pals, is the most sincere little truth-seeker of the bunch.

I'm all for letting Ayn & Simone in too, just to see them in the same room together. I bet within 20 minutes there'll be a hot catfight!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jorge: She was obviously a philosopher.

For someone who's determined to derail an intelligent conversation there are lots of tools. One is to require the other guy to define his terms, when you know perfectly well what he's saying. Another is ridicule, and still another is to question whether the guy has the credentials to make the statement he just made. Me, I don't care about credentials, unless a special case makes it unavoidable.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Eddie. I like Rand.

pappy d said...

Eddie:

I didn't mean to ridicule your theme. There seemed to be a side-issue touching on whether boys are smarter than girls & I felt a stupid comment from a male reader was called for.

Anonymous said...

I'm late but this is just fantastic