Showing posts with label philosophy girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy girls. Show all posts

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!"




Tuesday, October 23, 2007

THE RETURN OF THE PHILOSOPHY GIRLS

MAGNOLIA: "Hey, how do I get to be a Philosophy Girl? I wanna hang out with you girls and talk about....you know, philosophy and stuff."


MILDRED: "Well, it would help if you were a utilitarian like us. You know, the greatest good for the greatest number?"



MAGNOLIA: "Utilitarian!?? Pffft! That's so yesterday's news! Who decides what's good? What if slave owners decided?"



DAISY: "Well, I guess you'd need some way to decide what's good before you could be a utilitarian."


PETUNIA: "Haw! Well then why do we need Utilitarianism? It can't stand alone! By itself it lapses into absurdity! If killing an orphan results in the greatest good, then by all means, kill the orphan! And who defines good? Hitler? Stalin? Utilitarianism has no objective principals!


SUNFLOWER: "It kinda feels like Utilitarianism only works in a society where there's a tradition that says what's good."


SNAP-DRAGON: "I still like Utilitarianism. I mean, what else have we got? Gee, I'm getting itchy!"

VIOLET: "Me too! Reggie, be a good guy and scratch my back will ya?"


Saturday, June 23, 2007

SHOULD WE STRIVE FOR GOOD TASTE?

Gladys: "You know, I was thinking...don't you guys think good taste sucks? I mean, what is good taste but just the commonly agreed opinion about things? What if the common wisdom is wrong?"

Petunia: " Hmmmm. I don't know, Gladys. You have to anchor your opinions in something outside yourself. If you only have your own reason and emotions to judge things by you'll drift off into craziness and selfish behavior."

Marigold: "I think we're anchored. I mean I wouldn't run around naked on this tree limb if I thought it would fall. "
Violet: "Um, Marigold...I think Petunia meant "anchored" in a philosophical sense."

Marigold: "Oh..."


Sunflower: "Er... can I say something? It seems to me that the Greeks figured this thing out long ago. For them good taste was an aspect of virtue and virtue was something public. Good taste had something to do with making choices that were good for society. So..."
"

Mildred: "Holy Cow! Look! IT'S A MAN!!!!!!


Fred: "Grrrrr! I heard you girls babbling! None of you got it right!! Good taste is something for consumers of art to argue about! For the makers of art there's only the quest for greatness of spirit, for mastery over nature, for something worthy of the miraculous minds we were born with!!!!"


Girls: " (Gasp!) EEEEK! Run for the Hills! Let's book! Eeeeeekkk!!!!!! Eeeeekkk!!!!!!!!!"