Humor voor filosofen
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Waar Duitse wijsgeren te allen tijde ernstig blijven, staan hun Britse en Amerikaanse collega’s open voor filosofische kwinkslagen. Sidney Morgenbesser (1921-2004) staat in dit verband bekend als de grappigste filosoof ooit en omdat ik dit, na het lezen van een paar van zijn pratical jokes, alleen maar kan beamen, heb ik zijn ‘best of’ schaamteloos van Wikipedia gekopieerd. Komt ‘ie:
Morgenbesser was leaving a subway station in New York City and put his pipe in his mouth as he was ascending the steps. A police officer told him that there was no smoking on the subway. Morgenbesser pointed out that he was leaving the subway, not entering it, and hadn’t lit up yet anyway. The cop repeated his injunction. Morgenbesser repeated his observation. After a few such exchanges, the cop saw he was beaten and fell back on the oldest standby of enfeebled authority: “If I let you do it, I’d have to let everyone do it.” To this the old professor replied, “Who do you think you are, Kant?” The word “Kant” was mistaken for a vulgar epithet and Morgenbesser had to explain the situation at the police station.
Interrogated by a student whether he agreed with Chairman Mao’s view that a statement can be both true and false at the same time, Morgenbesser replied ‘Well, I do and I don’t.’
On the independence of irrelevant alternatives: After finishing dinner, Sidney Morgenbesser decides to order dessert. The waitress tells him he has two choices: apple pie and blueberry pie. Sidney orders the apple pie. After a few minutes the waitress returns and says that they also have cherry pie at which point Morgenbesser says “In that case I’ll have the blueberry pie.”
To B.F. Skinner, “Let me see if I understand your thesis. You think we shouldn’t anthropomorphize people?”
“If P, so why not Q?”
When asked his opinion of pragmatism, Morgenbesser replied “It’s all very well in theory but it doesn’t work in practice.”
A few weeks before his death, he asked another Columbia philosopher, David Albert, about God. “Why is God making me suffer so much?” he asked. “Just because I don’t believe in him?”
Heb je ze allemaal begrepen? Dan heb je waarschijnlijk filosofie gestudeerd.