Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... is a slim book that explains many philosophic terms and movements through jokes, many of them almost as old as the philosophers they illuminate. The authors, Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, seem to enjoy the philosophy almost as much as the jokes, although they will clearly walk a bit farther for the jokes than for the fine thinking. I don't think I learned anything new, although I was reminded of things I learned in school but didn't bother remembering. Or just forgot. Many of the jokes aren't funny for kids, so I won't even try to pass this book along.
It's a good summer vacation book, not too strenuous but not as fluffy as my pure fiction diet can get. B.
2 comments:
I'd read that. Or at least put it in my reading pile, which has grown large of late.
I would read it too...or maybe this is a candidate for book club when we wallow in our shallow fiction for too long?
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