Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Not so Тихий Дон now, eh Tovarisch Sholokhov?

Ever since the time when Baalam's Ass first propounded the Halting Problem, horses and philosophy have been entwined. This resulted in a Keats-&-Chapman joke, which as you have not heard it, I will now proceed to provide the punchline:

And we have certainly had our had our fair share of equine-related philosophical debate here at spacious Riddled Manor. There was the time, for instance, when Another Kiwi thought he could teach the principles of Cartesian Dualism to Louie the Carthorse. We tried telling him that he was putting Descartes before the horse, but did he listen? DHB-R.

"No point getting Ryled up about language philosophy and logical positivism," said tigris during the frank and open exchange of views which ensued.

"We might as well get it out in the open," I vouchsafed. "It will clear the Ayer."
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So it was a surprise to encounter a story about robust philosophical disputation with no obvious equine involvement. It may all have been made up:

MOSCOW (AP) — An argument in southern Russia over philosopher Immanuel Kant, the author of “Critique of Pure Reason,” devolved into pure mayhem when one debater shot the other.
The state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday cited police in the city of Rostov-on-Don as saying the argument took place in a small store and deteriorated into a fistfight. One participant pulled out a small nonlethal pistol and fired repeatedly.
The victim was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening. The weapon fired plastic bullets or blanks. Neither person was identified.
It was not clear which of Kant’s ideas may have triggered the violence.


If guns had not been available then they would probably been hitting each other with rocks, shouting "I refute Berkeley thus!" BUT NOT POKERS. Remember, guns don't resolve arguments by revealing their non-falsifiable nature, people resolve arguments by revealing their non-falsifiable nature.

13 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

So the police Kant tell, eh?

So typical.
~

Sirius Lunacy said...

I like to play the Critique of Angry Birds on my iMmanuel.

Hamish Mack said...

See the plastic bullets were like a refutation of the physicality of existence. Classy.

Substance McGravitas said...

Oh right, like the bullets could ever get there. In fact nothing is ever possible because first you have to do half the th

Smut Clyde said...

Substance McG is Zenophobic.

mikey said...

OK, sure, the philosophy is all pretty much over my head, but there's something here about a philosophical argument that ends with a shooting by a gun that didn't make anybody dead. It's like the low spark of high-fallutin philosophers...

Substance McGravitas said...

It's futilitarianism.

Hamish Mack said...

"So I gived him a short, sharp logical positivism which sorted the matter out.

El Manquécito said...

An effective gun might have shed light on "Bang and Nothingness".

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Substance McG is Zenophobic.

Achilles and the pellets...

Trevor said...

spacious Riddled Manor
I think you'll find that's "specious"

Bruce said...

I believe this goes here.

Sirius Lunacy said...

It's futilitarianism.

I know all about that. I used to be a futility infielder for the Chicago Cubs.