Thursday, September 17, 2009

EpistemeLinks: philosophy resources on the internet

I resisted the temptation to type "internets" rather than "internet" in the title of this post. This is part of my overall language improvement plan that also involves not saying the word "dude" anymore. The situation is not as dire as it sounds, but still...

EpistemeLinks is a resource containing links to resources about philosophy, including course materials, etexts, quotations, journals and magazines, and, as a possessor of a degree in philosophy myself, two sections I myself would combine, Fun and Humour and "Job Listings."

The Fun and Humour section definitely warranted further investigation. Amazingly, users can search for jokes by philosopher- here is a list of jokes about Karl Marx. For those of steelier mettle to withstand various puns and philosophical "humor," a link to the Daniel Dennett-edited Philosophical Lexicon is provided as well.

Some of these are actually pretty funny. Or not, depending on your sense of humor. I would never deny anyone the right to cringe at these lexicon entries:

aquinas, n.pl. (from a-, not, and quine) Philosophers who refuse to deny the existence or importance of something real or significant.

churchland, n., (1) Two-ring traveling circus, a cross between a chautauqua and Disneyland, at which philosophers are given entertaining religious instruction in Science and nothing to eat but "phase space sandwiches". Hence churchlandish, adj. Doubly outlandish. (2) n. A theocracy whose official religion is eliminative materialism.

heidegger, n. A ponderous device for boring through thick layers of substance. "It's buried so deep we'll have to use a heidegger." Also useful for burying one's own past.

1 comment:

  1. DUDE! Dude is a perfectly acceptable, appropriate, and not to mention, versatile word. If you stop using the word, I will be the only one expressing myself like a 12-year-old skater punk. That sucks dude...

    ReplyDelete