No, RC: not Aristotle, whose position was exactly the opposite. Aristotle recognized reality as the unquestionable given and the senses as fundamentally valid, inventing logic along the way and founding Western Civilization.
Poor Agnes (and Trout) are being tortured by Immanuel Kant, who argued that knowledge of this “phenomenal” world (two-world philosophy is a dead give-away of the influence of Plato) is spurious because you can’t know this world without using your senses. In other words, your vision is invalid because it requires eyes. And as for reason, fuggedaboudit!
But Kant put it so convolutedly and pseudo-rationally that entire generations of German philosophers–then teachers, then writers and artists, then the Mann on the Strasse, then marching Storm Troopers–all bought into the idea that reason is impotent. Once you believe that, the lowest level of thug takes over.
Be careful, Agnes! Know you are real! (Or at least as real as a cartoon character can be.)
Our senses may be deceiving us, but they’re all we have to go on…
Actually, I can only definitively make that claim about my own senses. Your sensory perceptions may differ from mine, or you may simply not exist at all, except as creations of my deceptive senses.
luezer almost 14 years ago
I think therfore I am. Start listening to some Moody Blues.
rshive almost 14 years ago
Fish Stix – the strip’s by-lines make it clear that Agnes has not developed appropriate social skills. The comedy is what results from it.
Conider too that sometimes “behaving sensibly” is just code for giving in to social pressures that would make us all into robots if they could.
pschearer Premium Member almost 14 years ago
No, RC: not Aristotle, whose position was exactly the opposite. Aristotle recognized reality as the unquestionable given and the senses as fundamentally valid, inventing logic along the way and founding Western Civilization.
Poor Agnes (and Trout) are being tortured by Immanuel Kant, who argued that knowledge of this “phenomenal” world (two-world philosophy is a dead give-away of the influence of Plato) is spurious because you can’t know this world without using your senses. In other words, your vision is invalid because it requires eyes. And as for reason, fuggedaboudit!
But Kant put it so convolutedly and pseudo-rationally that entire generations of German philosophers–then teachers, then writers and artists, then the Mann on the Strasse, then marching Storm Troopers–all bought into the idea that reason is impotent. Once you believe that, the lowest level of thug takes over.
Be careful, Agnes! Know you are real! (Or at least as real as a cartoon character can be.)
napaeric almost 14 years ago
M.C. Escher’s “cartoon” drew itself. In fact most of M.C. Escher’s work explained reality very well, or at least perceived reality.
MisngNOLA almost 14 years ago
Cogito, ergo sum.
I think, therefore I am. Rene Des Cartes.
So one day, Des Cartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks him if he’d like a drink. Des Cartes replies, “I think not” and promptly disappears.
fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago
Our senses may be deceiving us, but they’re all we have to go on…
Actually, I can only definitively make that claim about my own senses. Your sensory perceptions may differ from mine, or you may simply not exist at all, except as creations of my deceptive senses.
Cogito non ergo es.