Reddit Reddit reviews Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

We found 22 Reddit comments about Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
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22 Reddit comments about Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes:

u/tb8592 · 6 pointsr/askphilosophy

This book, "Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar" is very helpful for understanding basic philosophy concepts through jokes. I read it when I was younger and it was very entertaining to read, not overwhelming or intimidating, and pretty funny also.

https://www.amazon.com/Plato-Platypus-Walk-into-Understanding/dp/0143113879

u/doomparrot42 · 5 pointsr/BadSocialScience

So you say:

> If I think that I'm a competent and nice person, and I have a roommate or coworker that treats me like a fool and a jerk, that's going to create some cognitive dissonance, for sure. But I don't have the right to control what he mirrors back to me.

But then you say:

> The problem is that others feel cowed by them and afraid to discuss things.

How is it the fault of "PC types" how others respond to them? They don't have the right to control what people mirror back to them, after all.

> But at the same time we have to also recognize that being part of a society necessarily involves repressing some aspects of ourselves in order to interact with others. Animals don't do this - they do not empathize, they do not conceive that other animals have rights, so they rape and assault and steal.

Acting as though humans, because we are animals, are all prone to the same impulses and desires as animals is rather fallacious. And as it happens, many animals can and do empathize. Bonobos do not rape or assault, for example; they're a pacifistic species that uses sexuality to form bonds, reconcile differences, and keep the peace. Animal psychology isn't my specialty, but you're talking veneer theory here, which is not really a current part of the field. Check out Frans de Waal's primatology research - it's not as simple as "animals are brutal and society represses that in humans." Learning to exist in an interdependent society, and so learning to practice altruism and to set aside violent tendencies, is not remotely the same thing as attempting to pretend to be something that you are not in order to protect yourself from bigots.

You're still talking about identity in a broad sense strictly from your perspective on/understanding of the term. That doesn't mean that it's everyone's experience. You're not Schroedinger's human, both extant and not until observed. Identity may be refined through interaction but it is potentially defined in many different ways. In the case of pronoun choice, that's not about asking people to mirror back your identity to you, that's about asking people to not forcibly impose their own reality onto you. There is a distinction. Your framing makes it sound more like "speshul snowflakes need everyone to validate them" - that's not the point, at all.

And you mentioned that you were thinking of reading Heidegger this summer? If you have time to reddit you have time to read. Pick up an actual book, it'll do you good. You don't seem to have much of a sense of humor, maybe try this.

u/heyitsanne · 4 pointsr/philosophy

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar - amazon

Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy - wiki

And even though it is pretty heavy philosophy, I can't leave out David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature - wiki

u/Sherbert42 · 3 pointsr/askphilosophy

Thanks for mentioning you're seventeen; it does make a difference (to my mind!). M'colleagues below have recommended some pretty heavy reading, which I don't think is what you're really looking for on the face of it. If I were to recommend a book about philosophy to a seventeen-year-old, I wouldn't recommend a textbook, I'd recommend the following:

Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar. This is a book of jokes about philosophy. They're not very funny, but it's a good way to learn some ideas. Doesn't talk about people (old dead white men, for the most part); focuses on ideas.

The Pig that Wants to be Eaten. This is a little less frivolous; it's 100 little thought experiments. I'd say this is a bite-at-a-time book; read one, put the book down and think about it for a bit, then read another. I really enjoyed this.

Philosophy 101. This little volume is a pretty decent intro to some of the key ideas and thinkers of philosophy. No, it's not a textbook and it's not written by a professional philosopher, which is why I've recommended it. Its mistakes are small enough that if you get interested and start reading some more about the topic you'll pick up where the author went wrong pretty quickly. Again, this is a bite-at-a-time book.

Hope that helps, and of course if you find an idea and you have questions about it: ask away. :)

u/[deleted] · 3 pointsr/highdeas

bro go read some philosophy. It will brighten you up and validate your views. I highly recommend Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar

u/Coloradical27 · 3 pointsr/philosophy

Hi, I have a degree in Philosophy and teach Philosophy/English to high schooler. The following advice and recommendations are what I give my students who are interested in philosophy. I would not recommend Kant as an introduction (not that he's bad, but he is difficult to understand). Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar is a book that explains philosophical topics and questions through humor and uses jokes to illustrate the concepts. It is accessible and thought provoking. If you are interested in logic you might enjoy Logicomix. It is a graphic novel that gives a biographical narrative of Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher whose work is the basis of all modern logic. It is not a book about logic per se, but it does give a good introduction to what logic is and how it can be used. Also, Russell's book A History of Western Philosophy is a good place to start your education in philosophy. If you are interested in atheism, read Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. This book goes through the most common arguments for the existence of God, and debunks them using logic and reasoning. Good luck and read on!

u/CmdrNandr · 2 pointsr/philosophy

I would also recommend Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar. I found the book extremely entertaining because of the corny jokes (and some of them are god awful), and it made some schools of philosophy easier to understand for me.

There is also a new blog someone from Reddit started yesterday, and it is highly entertaining.

u/dweissglass · 2 pointsr/teachphilosophy

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I got hit with a pretty nasty respiratory bug which put me down for awhile.

Anyway, on to talking about a general plan for this project. I think that the best thing to do would be to start with a light touch, and see how well she takes to it.

With that in mind, I might recommend starting with 'Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar'. Plato and a Platypus is a cheap, and reasonably instructive (though superficial) introduction to a range of philosophical questions through jokes. It is a strange approach, but one I think works quite well as a something like a philosophical appetizer that introduces lots of interesting topics. It has a sequel focused on politics ("Aristotle and an Aardvark") which is also quite good. I will warn that not all of the jokes are appropriate for all audiences, so whether you like this book might depend on how liberal you feel like being regarding jokes featuring explicit language, adult themes, etc.

I also definitely recommend anything from the Oxford Very Short Introduction series, particularly (given your interests) the Very Short Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics. In my experience, the entire VSI series is excellent, and I've used some of them to teach philosophy at the community college level. They are extremely brief (they can fit into my pockets) and accessible, and also quite cheap (usually about 10 bucks a piece). They are written by leading experts on each given topic, and there is an enormous selection if you decide that you want to explore particular topics (Ancient Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Theology, etc). They will be a bit tougher than Plato and a Platypus in that they don't typically have much fluff, but should still be generally relatively accessible. The Ethics volume is pretty solid, built around a series of major questions that ethics needs to respond to. I will offer two warnings about the VSI series:
(1) VSI formatting is largely left up to the author, so the approach varies considerably from text to text. This allows authors to structure the material however they feel is best, which usually turns out great. Just be ready for some jumps in how they deal with things (e.g., the Ethics volume is divided into sections which each review some set of related questions and possible answers, while the Logic volume is problem centered and features new tools of formal logic to address various problems presented in each chapter)
(2) Authors of VSI are almost always working scholars with particular philosophical viewpoints - and this will come across in their texts. Expect some axes to be ground, and presuppositions assumed. That said, of the one's I've read (maybe 5 or so at this point), they still presented a rather fair overview of the field.

I think for books, you will be hard pressed to do better than Plato and a Platypus/Aristotle and an Aardvark to provoke the feeling that philosophy is worthwhile, and the Very Short Introduction series to provide an actual introduction into the field.

There are also some great philosophy podcasts. The best for a non-philosopher is likely "Philosophize This", which is a largely chronological review of a fair chunk of the most significant philosophers in history (even including some non-Western thinkers). Again, the material isn't explicitly aimed at younger folk, so there may be some touchy content, but it is generally an exceptional program. They have quite a backlog now (something like 90 episodes), so there is plenty of material there.

Also, I've found a couple of course plans for philosophy in middle school. The strongest looking one to me is this one from UNC. Definitely worth looking at as a way to structure your thoughts, but I would augment it with some of the resources covered above.

I think this would yield a pretty low cost way to test if this approach will work. Assuming you were to buy all four books I've mentioned, I think it would run a total of about $40 per person, which should make this a pretty light investment in terms of money. Likewise, the books are all relatively short, so you might make it through them in as little as a month (if you were really motivated).

I think the real trick will be in deciding where to go after the initial introduction has been made and more serious texts are being considered, but this will depend a lot on how this project develops. I think the best thing to do with that is to wait and see how things turn out, then plan the next leg of the introduction. I'll be around for the foreseeable future, and would be happy to help you figure that out when the time comes.

Let me know what you think, and keep me in the loop as the project unfolds. I am very interested in this project and would be happy to lend a hand when possible.

u/Fotorush · 2 pointsr/philosophy

I'm 16 and this book helped me get a handle on the basics
It's a bit corny, but it's understandable and goes through ethics, logic, metaphysics, etc, as well as some of the well known philosophers.
You can flip through the first few pages to get a feel for it.

u/andrew_richmo · 2 pointsr/philosophy

For those new to philosophy, I'd recommend The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher, as well as Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. I'm not all the way through the second one but it seems interesting. These are fairly simple but interesting introductory books that teach you some of the issues philosophers deal with.

Hope this helps!

u/Arryreddit · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Truly one of the best philosophy jokes... This is a fun book
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143113879

u/6daycreation · 1 pointr/askphilosophy

I thumbed through the one on Aristotle. I thought it was entertaining, though not entirely accurate. Symposia, for example, would probably be better understood as "drinking parties," rather than "dinner parties."

I appreciate the joke-approach, e.g. Plato and a Platypus, though I suspect that these sorts of books are more entertaining for philosophers than they are to the general public.

u/mistermajik2000 · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143113879/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Va7gybENNW9CQ

u/SachaTheHippo · 1 pointr/pics

This reference is also available in a wonderful book called Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Platypus-Walk-into-Understanding/dp/0143113879

u/WindowOnInfinity · 1 pointr/tipofmytongue

If you like these sorts of philosophical books, I can also recommend What's Wrong With Eating People? and Plato and A Platypus Walk into A Bar.

u/kinship · 1 pointr/philosophy
u/simism66 · 1 pointr/askphilosophy

I have a few suggestions.

The Philosophy Gym has 25 short philosophy things, with pictures and dialogues. Stephen Law also has a lot of other books of similar style that might be worth looking into.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar is a philosophy joke book, which might be a fun coffee table book.

The Philosophy Bites book has 25 interviews with leading contemporary philosophers.

The Stone Reader has articles by leading contemporary philosophers that were published in the New York Times philosophy column, The Stone.

Hope that helps!

u/notsofast789 · 1 pointr/Jokes

I honestly didn't know or see, I'm not usually a reader of r/funny or r/jokes. I read it in a very clever philosophy overview like 48 hours ago. Judging by the karma you got for your attempt, it would have been foolish on my part to steal from you. I thought it might be amusing to some, as I laughed out loud a little at the Starbucks I was reading it in.

Please tell me you're not picking fights over a meaningless and imaginary currency on a website that is designed for the discussion, not for the points. That'd be quite low and worthless.

u/deviantenigma · 1 pointr/philosophy

Plato and the platypus might be pretty good for you. It goes over the basics. Not sure how it stands up to other books.

http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Platypus-Walk-into-Understanding/dp/0143113879/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317963654&sr=1-1

u/stu556 · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I see someone else has read Plato and a Platypus...