mandag 24. august 2009

Hva er virkelig?


Sosiologi-professor (em.) Laurie Taylor (se tegningen) har i mange år skrevet en humoristisk spalte på baksiden av Times Higher Education. The University of Poppleton, med sine gjenkjennelige akademikere og overarbeidede instituttsekretær, er av og til litt for realistisk til å være behagelig. Men god humor skal jo være treffende.

Denne gangen vil jeg faktisk gjengi hele teksten fra en "artikkel" i den fiksjonale internavisen The PoppleEtonian. Jeg håper det ikke blir for filosofi-internt:

Three Injured in 'pain' Riot
Police cars raced to our campus on Monday in response to an emergency call from the convenor of this year's Annual Conference of Physicalist Philosophers.

According to witnesses, a fracas involving several dozen delegates broke out in the conference hall during a paper by Professor D.W. Grimping on the manner in which physicalism could readily dispose of the issue of qualia raised by such states as feeling pain and seeing red.
As Grimping neared his conclusion on the merits of supervenience physicalism, it seems that an organised cabal of unregistered phenomenologists rose to their feet and began to chant in unison: "phenomenal nature is not exhausted by functional role".

Delegates who moved to eject the troublemakers were met with blows from rolled-up copies of the conference abstracts and shouts of "this is what pain feels like" and "now you know what seeing red really means".

Speaking to The Poppletonian, the convener of the conference, Doctor L.G. Thinginess, expressed his regrets for the violence. "Most phenomenologists", he insisted, "are perfectly happy sitting around quietly examining their own structures of feeling. It's only a minority who seek to impose those feelings on others."

Our Corporate Director of Conference Hospitality, Janet Teesmade, confirmed that there would be an investigation into the incident and that careful consideration would be given to any future conference applications from philosophers. "Without taking sides in the present dispute, it does rather seem that these physicalists get under other people's skin by not getting under other people's skin."

Ingen kommentarer:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...