a little philosophy joke.

[Danny Weltman]

The joke is obscure at best, and to appreciate the full hilarity you've got
to be steeped in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy (Jerry Fodor, the
guy from whom the joke is taken, is a preeminent philosopher). In case
anyone wants the frog dissected:

The basic punchline is that the heckler has failed to consider "naive
realism," which is pretty much the most basic view in the entire world.
Anyone who isn't a philosopher is almost certainly a naive realist, because
why WOULDN'T things be generally as they appear to be? One has to be a
philosopher or similarly deranged to think otherwise. The history of
philosophy is filled with views like idealism (everything exists as ideas
in our heads, and in God's head, not as actual objects) and other wacky
stuff, and the heckler is so focused on all those obscure philosophical
views that they have neglected what's right in front of them.

The other source of hilarity for the joke is conventions in philosophy.
Philosophy is a very predatory sort of field - lots of people treat it like
one big contest or one big argument, with the idea being that you pounce
upon any weakness in your interlocutor's position and tear them apart (this
is what Socrates spent his days doing). So, every philosopher has had the
experience of someone who's "got your number," so to speak, while you're
giving a talk. Sometimes it feels like the entire audience has got your
number. In the joke this is pushed to the point of hilarity, because the
heckler is objecting after the first sentence of the talk (traditionally
you're supposed to wait until the end of the talk to raise your objection,
because it might be covered at some point if you just sit tight and let the
speaker finish).

We could make the same joke outside the context of philosophy: Once upon a
time, a visiting linguist presented a lecture on the topic: ‘How many ways
are there to greet people in principle?’ ‘In principle,’ he began, ‘there
are exactly 12 ways to greet people.' A voice called from the audience:
‘Thirteen.’ ‘There are,’ the lecturer repeated, ‘*exactly *12 possible ways
to greet people; not one less and not one more.’ ‘Thirteen,’ the voice from
the audience called again. ‘Very well, then,’ said the lecturer, now
perceptibly irked, ‘I shall proceed to enumerate the 12 possible ways to
greet people. The first is to say hello.’ ‘Oh,’ said the voice from the
audience. Then ‘Fourteen!’

It's less funny, because it's missing the context of philosophers being
assholes to each other in an effort to emulate Socrates, but you can
probably get the gist.

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 6:37 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:

> i don't get it
>
> On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 4:17 AM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Perfect...
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 5:30 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I will tell you a philosophical joke. Once upon a time, a visiting
>>> scholar presented a lecture on the topic: ‘How many philosophical positions
>>> are there in principle?’ ‘In principle,’ he began, ‘there are exactly 12
>>> philosophical positions.’ A voice called from the audience: ‘Thirteen.’
>>> ‘There are,’ the lecturer repeated, ‘*exactly* 12 possible
>>> philosophical positions; not one less and not one more.’ ‘Thirteen,’ the
>>> voice from the audience called again. ‘Very well, then,’ said the lecturer,
>>> now perceptibly irked, ‘I shall proceed to enumerate the 12 possible
>>> philosophical positions. The first is sometimes called “naive realism”. It
>>> is the view according to which things are, by and large, very much the way
>>> that they seem to be.’ ‘Oh,’ said the voice from the audience. Then
>>> ‘Fourteen!’
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>
>>
>
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