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Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar…: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes and Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes
Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar…: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes and Aristotle: Hardcover, 200 pages; 2006
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes: Hardcover 1
 Members' Price (UB1512): $16.11
Members' Price (UC0072): $16.11
Dimitri: If Atlas holds up the world, what holds up Atlas?
Tasso: Atlas stands on the back of a turtle.
Dimitri: But what does the turtle stand on?
Tasso: Another turtle.
Dimitri: And what does that turtle stand on?
Tasso: My dear Dimitri, it’s turtles all the way down!
With a chuckle, the bit of dialogue above sums up the philosophical notion of infinite regress! This lively and sophisticated little book explains the basics of metaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics, existentialism, relativity, and more through jokes that illustrate each concept. The authors, both of whom were philosophy majors at Harvard many years ago, assert that "philosophy and jokes proceed from the same impulse: to confound our sense of the way things are, to flip our worlds upside down, and to ferret out hidden, often uncomfortable, truths about life." A sprightly crash course in philosophy, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar… is both enlightening and laugh-out-loud funny.
(CH)
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