Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar is an overview of philosophy described through a series of gags, jokes, quotes, and short vignettes. It is more amusing than funny. The book was enjoyable and relaxing to read.

The reader learns about metaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics, and other subjects as they may have been taught by Woody Allen or Groucho Marx. On the books cover, there is a quote by Groucho Marx, "These are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein use a lot of counterpoint and one liners. A good example of this from Pp. 64 is:

Secretary: Doctor, there's an invisible man in the waiting room.

Doctor: Tell him I can't see him.

There are a lot of philosophers covered. Almost all of them are western philosophers; Plato, Leibniz, Kant, Sigmund Freud, Pascal, Heidegger, and others. The authors briefly mention Confucius and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Each chapter has several single panel cartoons, snippets of dialogue, quotes from famous people, and brief philosophical definitions. There is a timeline of philosophers at the end of the book, a glossary of philosophical terms, and an index.

This is a pleasant way to spend some evenings reading. I liked the book enough to read the followup, Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through The Pearly Gates Using Philosophy (And Jokes) to Explore, Life, Death, The Afterlife, and Everything In Between.

Daily Thoughts 4/10/2010

Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, and Isaac Asimov, Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1944.

Daily Thoughts 4/10/2010

I finished reading Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar this morning. It was enjoyable and a bit fun. This morning, I also put Linnea Sinclair, Rebels and Lovers on hold. Linnea Sinclair writes space opera with a dash of romance. I also put Alexander Jablokov, Brain Thief on hold. I also read a little bit of Library Journal this morning.

I enjoyed reading Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar enough to start reading Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates. It is a nice mix of philosophy and gags.

Todays poetry open microphone went well. Two of the people were published poets. One was published in an anthology, and another had their own book of poetry. We had ten people for our initial meeting in total. Nine people signed in. The gentleman who wanted to start a poetry club asked me about doing another one. I was pleasantly surprised.

I watched some of The Hurt Locker on dvd tonight. It is a war film about Iraq. The story focuses on a bomb squad. The film won an Academy Award. It is a quite interesting film.

Daily Thoughts 4/9/2010

Gemälde zeitgenössischer spanischer Schriftsteller von Antonio Maria Esquivel y Suarez de Urbina (1846) Abgebildete Personen: Antonio Ferrer del Río (1814-1872), Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (1806-1880), Juan Nicasio Gallego (1777-1853), Antonio Gil y Zárate (1793-1861), Tomás Rodríguez Rubí (1817-1890), Isidoro Gil y Baus (1814-1866), Cayetano Rosell y López (1817-1883), Antonio Flores (1818-1866), Manuel Bretón de los Herreros (1796-1873), Francisco González Elipe, Patricio de la Escosura (1807-1878), José María Queipo de Llano, conde de Toreno (1786-1843), Antonio Ros de Olano (1808-1887), Joaquín Francisco Pacheco (1808-1865), Mariano Roca de Togores (1812-1889), Juan González de la Pezuela (1809-1906), Ángel de Saavedra, duque de Rivas (1791-1865), Gabino Tejado (1819-1891), Francisco Javier de Burgos (1824-1902), José Amador de los Ríos (1818-1878), Francisco Martínez de la Rosa (1787-1862), Carlos Doncel, José Zorrilla (1817-1893), José Güell y Renté (1818-1884), José Fernández de la Vega, Ventura de la Vega (1807-1865), Luis de Olona (1823-1863), Antonio María Esquivel, Julián Romea (1818-1863), Manuel José Quintana (1772-1857), José de Espronceda (1808-1842), José María Díaz († 1888), Ramón de Campoamor (1817-1901), Manuel Cañete (1822-1891), Pedro de Madrazo y Kuntz (1816-1898), Aureliano Fernández Guerra (1816-1891), Ramón de Mesonero Romanos (1803-1882), Cándido Nocedal (1821-1885), Gregorio Romero Larrañaga (1814-1872), Bernardino Fernández de Velasco y Pimentel, duque de Frías (1873-1851), Eusebio Asquerino (h.1822-1892), Manuel Juan Diana (1814-1881), Agustín Durán (1793-1862).

Daily Thoughts 4/9/2010

April is National Poetry Month. Take some time to read some poetry. I am going to put up a poetry display today of poetry books. We have two new copies of Nikki Giovanni's collection of poems called Bicycles which is pleasant to read. Tomorrow, April 10, 2-4 p.m. is the day for the poetry reading at the library. Hopefully some people will come to read poetry. I've picked out a few books to show at the beginning including The Collected Poems of Audre Lord, Words in Your Face A Guided Tour of The New York City Poetry Slam, and The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. The April issue of American Libraries has a poster in it for National Poetry month.

We are looking at setting up Overdrive on our webpage. I have to think about it a little bit. I have been reading some more of The Value of Nothing. A lot of it is about enfranchisement of the impoverished into todays market economy. He talks about ways that tomato pickers, people in South African townships, and the very poor can share in the global economy. A lot of it is very social policy oriented, union oriented, and politically left. It has a utopian feel to it.

I finished reading The Value of Nothing on my train ride home. There are parts of it which come across as impractical and even extreme, and other pieces that I can identify with. I like that he describes that many people are looking at Wikipedia and Creative Commons as models for more direct democratic governnance. He also brings up quite a bit about how cap and trade only limits pollution and does not really stop it. There is quite a bit to think on in this book. The beginning is a series of criticisms on objectivist philosophy and laissez faire economics. There are points where he goes too far toward government control of economics. The book is starry eyed enough in its thinking to be impractical at points and can get fairly radical. I will write a review soon.

I am looking at Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. Apparently it made it onto the New York Times Bestseller list. There is also a sequel, Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates Using Philosophy (And Jokes!) to Explain Life, Death, The Afterlife, And Everything Else in Between.

I also read a bit of Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar on the train. The jokes are more moral vignettes than true jokes. They are the kind of stories you use to make a small point with humor. They cover different philosophical subjects like metaphysics, inductive logic, and epistemology. Some of the jokes are a bit ribald. A good example from the book is, The Optimist says, "The glass is half full." The pessimist says, "The glass is half empty." The rationalist says, "The glass is twice as big as it needs to be." They make you think.