Until reading this book, my entire knowledge of philosophers came from the Monty Python “Philosophers’ Song”. I have never been interested in philosophy, but felt that perhaps I ought to know a little – and this book seemed like the perfect introduction: lots of humour and little effort required.
I really enjoyed reading the book. I think I understood most of the concepts mentioned and how each of the jokes illuminated the given philosophy. I have finished the book, can remember the jokes, but still have almost no idea of which philosopher had which philosophy, or why. This is not a fault of the book – rather my innate ability to immediately purge my mind of any philosophical thought processes (except the ones directly relating to mathematics). I am destined to remain ignorant.
One rather pedantry irritation I have with the book, is its failure to correctly quote most German phrases. German nouns are always capitalised. It is “das Ding an sich” – not “das ding”, and “Einfühlung”. The one time it was correctly done, was with “Übermensch” Nietzsche’s Superman) – what does that say?
But, apart from that, I loved the book – so many laugh-out-loud moments, and my husband was heartily sick of me reading out nearly every joke.
One of my favourites – to illustrate relativity:
“We may attribute relativity to something that is absolute. The lookout on a battleship spies a light ahead off the starboard bow. The captain tells him to signal the other vessel, “Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately!” The answer comes back, “Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately!” The captain is furious. He signals, “I am a captain. We are on a collision course. Alter your course twenty degrees now!” The answer comes back, “I am a seaman second class, and I strongly urge you to alter your course twenty degrees.” Now the captain is beside himself with rage. He signals, “I am a battleship!” The answer comes back, “I am a lighthouse.”
I recommend this book for its humour and light approach to a very weighty subject – but don’t expect to emerge being able to pass Philosophy 101.
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