Anyone into Philosophy? Help!

Due to the utter waste of time and resources getting my MA degree has become, I've taken up studying different interests on the side, just to exercise my mind. (I'll vent about teacher education programs on another thread...)

Anywhoo,

I've been studying philosophy. Bought books, lectures on cd, etc. and I'm loving it. For fun I recently picked up a small book entitled; Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes.

Turns out I'm S-L-O-W. I need help connecting the jokes to the philosophical concepts. Here was my first clueless moment:

(Discussing metaphysics - aka: what is the meaning of it all?)

Teleology

Does the universe have a purpose?
According to Aristotle, everything has a telos, which is an inner goal it is meant to attain. An acorn has a telos: an oak tree... It's what an acorn is "meant to be."

Does human life have a telos?

Aristotle thought so. He thought the telos of human life is happiness, a point disputed by other philosophers throughout human history...

There is a distinction between the telos of life - what human beings are meant to be - and a particular individual's goals in life - what he wants to be. Is Sam, the dentist in the following story, really seeking the universal telos of life or simply doing his own thing? His mom clearly has her own idea of the telos of her son's life.

A Philadelphia dentist, Sam Lipschitz, went off to India to find the meaning of life. Months went by and his mother didn't hear a word from him. Finally, she took a plane to India and asked for the wisest man there. She was directed to an ashram, where the guard told her that she would have to wait a week for an audience with the guru, and at that time she would only be allowed to speak three words to him. She waited, carefully preparing her words. When she was finally ushered in to see the guru, she said to him, "Sam, come home!"



Uh-h-h. I don't get it. Anybody?! Help me out here?

The section immediately following the intro and joke may help, but.. I dunno.

Look up "metaphysics" in the dictionary and it tells you the word stems from the title of a treatise by Aristotle and that it deals with questions at a level of abstraction beyond (meta) scientific observation. But this turns out to be a case of what is known in Latin as post hoc hokum. In fact, Aristotle didn't call his treatise "metaphysics" at all, let alone because it dealt with questions beyond the purview of science. Actually, it was given that name in the first century A.D. by an editor of Aristotle's collected works, who chose the title because that chapter was "beyond" (i.e., came after) Aristotle's treatise on "Physics."


Am I looking for a deeper meaning than what's intended?
Sam flew the coup and his mom wasted an opportunity to consult a guru on the meaning of life?

should I just stick with my education classes?!
*No insult intended
Jodi

are you really posting this at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning? You need to have some fun my friend!

Clearly I have NO help to offer -- I'm just as boggled as you are.

Yup. It's either think about this stuff or dwell on the fact that our water system is seriously f*ed up again.

Contemplate the meaning of life or get sucked down the drain.

"I choose life" - favorite line from "Ice Age"

Oof. Wow, Jenn. I'm seriously losing it.

-J

Contemplate the meaning of life or get sucked down the drain.

"I choose life" - favorite line from "Ice Age"

Okay - a slight clue as to why the philosophy might be over our heads. (I totally got THAT BTW. It's actually from "Ice Age - The Meltdown" isn't it?)

Well, sister in Lawrence or no sister in Lawrence - you & the dudes are always welcome here!

[fluffhead]

actually, the joke was completely ruined by stating that it was his mother. It's really quite a funny joke when told right...try this...

A little old Jewish lady decides to make the long journey to speak with a guru in India. She flies into New Delhi and takes a train to a small town in the mountains, where she catches a rickety old bus for another leg of the journey. At the end of the bus line, she hires a porter to schlep her bags as she walks the last few miles. Finally, she arrives at the ashram and demands to speak with the guru right away. His attendants refuse her request at first, but she is so insistent that they let her in on the condition that she agrees to speak only three words. "Fine," says the old lady. When she comes into the guru, she looks up at him and says, "Sheldon, come home!"

Thanks for spelling it out for me, everybody. Wow, I totally missed the boat on that one.

Did I miss Patel's stand-up? I probably wouldn't have gotten it anyhow.

-J