This book about philosophy will leave you in stitches.
How about a philosophy book that had me laughing 'til I cried. Philosophy, that esoteric science of deep, deep thinkers pondering the meaning of it all, is closely linked to humor. At least that's the claim of authors Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, who have penned an improbable book of philosophy/humor titled Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar...
In an odd combination of vaudeville and grad school, this small book yanked me between deep concentration--struggling to understand the difference between existentialism and essentialism--and delicious, gut-wrenching, laughter.
The authors claim that philosophy and humor have similar constructions, "to confound our sense of the way things are ... and ferret out hidden, often uncomfortable truths about life."
Paraphrasing a discussion on Essentialism illustrates how Cathcart and Klein weave their magic on the subject of the structure of reality:
What makes things the way they are? Aristotle's distinction, according to the authors, was that essential properties are those without which a thing wouldn't be what it is, and accidental properties are those that determine how a thing is, but not what a thing is.
Follow that? I didn't either, but the following joke illustrates the essential/accidental distinction:
When Thompson hit seventy, he decided to change his lifestyle completely so that he could live longer. He went on a strict diet, jogged, swam, and took sunbaths. In three months he lost thirty pounds, reduced his waist by six inches, and expanded his chest by five inches.
Svelte and tan, he stopped for a sporty haircut. While leaving the barbershop, he was hit by a bus.
As he lay dying, he cried out, "God, how could you do this to me?"
And a voice from the heavens responded, "To tell you the truth, Thompson, I didn't recognize you."
Thompson changed accidental properties, but not essential properties. Though he was still dead.
