3 replies on “Simpsons Philosophy”

  1. OT: Physics of Star Trek
    Those readers with long memories will remember that
    I promised
    to write about the issues I had with
    Krauss’ The Physics of Star Trek. Rather
    than just complaining about what I think he got wrong,
    I’ve decided I’m better off doing out all the
    calculations he alludes to and publishing them. That
    way, if I’m the one who’s wrong, the mathematically
    inclined readers out there can spot my mistakes.
    Anyway, that’s a big project, which is unlikely to
    start before my thesis is finished. (The funding for
    that runs out in April, so there’s a definite deadline
    ahead.)

  2. Ok.
    My girlfriend had to read The Simpsons and Philosophy for a Satire class this semester. Being the huge nerd that I am, I also read this book. If this is what they’re basing the course on, I certainly hope it’s a very short course.

    • It’s a two-credit course
      I haven’t read the /. article, but on the radio that’s what they said. One of the books they will be using is called “The Doh of Homer”.

      Aside from the similarities to “Waiting for Godot” in terms of the absurdness of life and existensialism, the one thing I can think of that definitely applies to philosophy is good old Sockrats’ “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Every now and then they’ll have an ep where one or more of the family members kinda look at themselves objectively, basically say “Yep, we’re really screwy”, but then follow to say “That’s exactly the way we like it.”

      It reminds me that I’ve been meaning to dig up my books and notes and see if Sockrats ever mentioned the idea of ignorance being bliss. It seems like a statement that is pure antithesis to Plato’s writings, and prolly ancient Greek thought in general, but it seems like it would have made for a great Socratic dialogue, especially if it were with Gorgias or another sophist.

      The idea of ignorance of bliss rings much to me of eastern philosophy, at least where one is just busy trying to experience life as unfettered as possible. I’m saying this because some of the ancient Greeks come off as closet eastern philosophers. I’ve probably been reading Pirsig too much. But the way Socrates always kinda circles back around to admitting he knows nothing; Gorgias’ (and pretty much everyone in the socratic dialogues) failure to describe an abstract good; Heraclitus’ description of what-there-is being in a state of constant change; all of that stuff kinda tickles my brain.

      /me takes philosophy-major-wannabe hat back off and gets back to comp-sci career.

Comments are closed.