#740: "Sorry."

[Kurosen]

Further proof that I am a horrible person.

[Kroze Gamegod]

You made my head hurt on the inside....
It hurts bad!
Makes me wonder how both BM and Thief feel about this talk...
It wouldn't effect fighter since he will most likely think it all has something to do with swords and agree anyway.

[Zebasiz]

Curse your bones! Curse them I say!

Though I loved RM's line. :D

Your bones are slightly less cursed now.

[talse]

as a word smith my self, I am not entirely repulsed by a page of text to be the set up for a four word punchline. Some may even say I enjoy jokes like that. These people are crazy, but they say it anyway.

[bananarama]

Hehe I found it funny... and mean.
But I think I understood the gist of what the crazy cultist was saying.

[Truce]

I find this particularly funny-I just got back from my Philosphy Class, and this was one of the first things I read.

[Death by Stabbing]

You know that's true about Philosophy majors...I've seen it in action!
DBS

[Stabbity_Man]

The cultist's last line is great.

It's true too!

[Lady Cygnet]

Further proof that I am a horrible person.

Yes. Yes, you are. :p

But you are also funny, brilliant...and dead-on accurate about the job prospects of philosophy majors.

[Salookanana]

Methinks the cultists need stabbing now.

[Fenris]

My brother's a Philosophy major! =D

He's gonna get one hell of a laugh out of this comic. XD

Best comic in a long time.

[GIGN]

What a shame that America's society today won't let you get far with philosophy (unless you're one of the good & lucky ones)... that's what's wrong with the world these days; too many people are solely focused on what they need to learn for their sought-after job, and they've all forgotten about enlightenment. It's no wonder that so many people are ignorant.

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day”. -- Thomas Jefferson

Science without conscience (consciousness) is ruin of the mind.

:brow:

[Art of Hilt]

Professor: "What if I remove a single molecule from the table? Is it still a table.?"

Class: "Yes."

Professor: "What if I keep doing that? One molecule at a time? When does the table stop being a table?"

Class: "Ooooooh."

Brian: "I'm gonna say when it falls over."

Professor: "That's not the point of the--"

Brian: "That's when it stops being a table."

XD
Yar, I giggled at the comic and even more at the above quote.

[JKLantern]

I agree that the table stops being a table when the damn thing falls over.

[I_Like_Swordchucks]

OMG!!! It IS true about philosophy majors! I did a minor in philosophy in my undergrad degree... and there were crazy people in my class who would discuss the inherent immorality of eating fruits and veggies... while chewing on a hamburger.

The very truth of this comic is what makes it good. Kudos.

[Massacre]

Methinks the cultists need stabbing now.

Oh, that's our solution to everything!

Stabbity death!
Point-blank annihilation!
Throw Black Mage at it!

I want a better idea this time around! You know what I mean...

*Looks around deviously*

We'll offer up Fighter as a sacrifice to make them go away...and then they'll murder each other with their stupidity.

[Kurosen]

What a shame that America's society today won't let you get far with philosophy (unless you're one of the good & lucky ones)... that's what's wrong with the world these days; too many people are solely focused on what they need to learn for their sought-after job, and they've all forgotten about enlightenment. It's no wonder that so many people are ignorant.

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day”. -- Thomas Jefferson

Science without conscience (consciousness) is ruin of the mind.

:brow:

I agree in general, but there is a point where philosophy stops being important and starts being so far removed from day-to-day experiences and concerns as to make itself useless.

There are important questions and important paths to those answers, but the major factor in widespread ignorance in American society is not the lack of Philo majors. It's the lack of substantive public education for the first 18 years of life.

[GIGN]

I agree in general, but there is a point where philosophy stops being important and starts being so far removed from day-to-day experiences and concerns as to make itself useless.

There are important questions and important paths to those answers, but the major factor in widespread ignorance in American society is not the lack of Philo majors. It's the lack of substantive public education for the first 18 years of life.

Yeah, I agree, as philosophy is only useful up to a certain point for most people... doing a major in it probably isn't 'necessary' unless you're looking at doing something in rapport with it as a career.

However, I think that everything up to that 'certain point' is very meaningful. Do highschools in America have classes in philosophy as part of mainstream education? In France, that's how it works for the last year of 'high school' (although the last two years of high school in France resemble a college system, insofar as there are multiple paths to choose from: literature, science, economics, et cetera). I personally had 8 hours of it a week.

:stressed:

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Bah! Today's comic was tame compared to anything & EVERYTHING that was taught in that Metaphysics course I took. Metaphysics = pain. Never forget that.

SWB

[Tiako]

Anyone else laugh more at the newspost than the comic? Great comic, but better post.

[Massacre]

Anyone else laugh more at the newspost than the comic? Great comic, but better post.

I'm still getting over the victors.

Oh, and there is ONE other profession for philosophy majors than creepy cults.

Teaching it. :cool:

[Ryong]

Newspost was funnier...Still, all that the cultists said will result in the cultists getting: stabbed/annihilated/slashed/thrown at eachother.

[Skyshot]

Regarding the newspost, methinks the good professor could bear a little looking into something called the continuum fallacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_fallacy).

Regarding the comic, it's pretty much my view of things taken much more seriously. Also, it reminds me of another fine joke.The engineer asks "how does it work?" The scientist asks "why does it work?" The accountant asks "how much does it cost?" The liberal arts major asks "Would you like fries with that?"

[Kaarin]

heheh... you know, what's odd as a philosophy major: that sounds like an almost verbatim transcript of something that happened in philosophy of beauty one time. All that was missing was "Well, friend...."

And the thing about tables? Got a worse one.

Student: "But Professor, what about, say, the experience of being a book?"

Professor: "Well first of all, I'm not sure that books have experiences."

Emphasis mine.

Oh, and on our job prospects: thanks to my major, I'm in the process of moving into Intelligence Analysis full-time. Hopefully. :)

[Zuntrios]

Anyone else laugh more at the newspost than the comic? Great comic, but better post.
That's actually the reason I finally broke down and registered today... I have been reading 8BT for a long time, but I just saw that and it just hit so close to home, I.E. thinking about things that are completely different from anyone else, that I decided to register. Plus, I loved the whole monologue. Very deep stuff. Maybe it would help us all if we would think like that every once in a while.

[bass_virus]

Yeah, philosiphy school is basically just learning how to trick people into joining your suicide cult and than explaining why you will be the only person who won't be commiting suicide.

And also a table quits being a table when it can no longer hold something up, than it's just a piece of crap.

[Long-Haired Narcissist]

I was thinking about starting my own religion to get out of paying taxes. Guess I figured out what my minor will be next year.

[Khael!]

My friend once started a 'religion'. He called it Mathology and used his warped philosophies to try and extort money from the lesser brained while being overtly mocking of his and 'real' cults. Then the philosophistical/tabletop rpg gamer/bard/sketch artist/Irishman/soldier/possibly robot/Latin teacher from our school literally threw real philosophy at the guy.

In addition to being everything else on this planet, anonymous everything-guy also reads 8-bit Theatre.

[PCD]

*blink* I understood every word of that. Is that bad?

The final line truly speaks the way of the world.

[Grimrider]

Hey...long time reader, first time poster.

1) Not everybody goes to university to get a career. Some actually study Liberal Arts and things like Philosophy or Literature because they enjoy it. I sure as hell wasn't expecting to get into the high paying world of English Lit when I graduated with that degree, I did it because taking 4 years of BioChem or Business Admin, just to get a job, would have crushed my skull with boredom.

2) If you hate Philosophy, why did you register for it, and continue taking it when you found you didn't like it?

[Kurosen]

1) I majored in English Literature with a minor in Philosoph because I enjoyed them.

2) I used the phrase, "At academic gun point," in the newspost. Does that sound voluntary?

The short story is that a long, long series of the university's screw ups forced me into a position where they made me take a Philosophy major against my will. It was that or be kicked out of school. Surely you can see how that might sour one on the experience.

[Grimrider]

2) I used the phrase, "At academic gun point," in the newspost. Does that sound voluntary?

The short story is that a long, long series of the university's screw ups forced me into a position where they made me take a Philosophy major against my will. It was that or be kicked out of school. Surely you can see how that might sour one on the experience.

Wow. That must be a very complex series of mishaps. I've never heard of anybody being forced to major in a subject against their will before.

[Massacre]

I feel sorry for you, Brian. You must've had a pretty lousy professor. I, personally, took on Philosophy courses during my English Major - I'm a writer, so that's what I take to improve myself - and I've got an excellent grasp of a number of philosphical views. My top pick for that would have to be Existentialism. Why, you might ask? (Even if you don't I'm going to answer anyway.) Because...in what other view of the world could you place yourself above god and heaven, greater than all and important to the whole of the cosmos as the center of all things? None that I know of. And since I am what I am, being of the evil and pissed off at high powers persuasion, this is most ideal for the likes of ME!

*Looks around suspiciously before continuing*

Yes, I realize that that rant was completely insane, but my views are quite jaded, so this is an inevitable consequence of being the way that I am! MWA HA HA HA HAAA!!!

[wuhpah!]

Isn't that solipsism? It's interesting that "I think therefore I am" only applies to oneself, because you can never be sure anything else thinks and therefore exists.

[Massacre]

Ah, no. I don't think so. As the first rule in Existentialism is "Existence preceeds essence" - which means your existence before everything else - it is its own reasoning there. And I'm afraid I've found that Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" business does not relate, in truth. His way of thinking is essence before existence, believing that a singular non-perfect being such has himself must have conceivably come from a most-perfect omnipotent being. It is the exact opposite of Existentialism. Of course, taking it from the perspective of others, I can see why this would give a multitude of headaches. So, I don't hold any grudge towards Brian's views.

[Kaarin]

Isn't that solipsism? It's interesting that "I think therefore I am" only applies to oneself, because you can never be sure anything else thinks and therefore exists.

No. Solispsism is, strictly speaking, the doctrine that one's own mind is the only thing that exists.

The Cogito (which Descartes never actually wrote in the Meditations) doesn't establish that one's mind is the only thing that exist; it's a sort of first principle, or meant to be, that I cannot doubt my own existence (interesting sidenote: there's one professor out there who actually has seriously defended the view that he cannot demonstrate his own existence) because there has to be somethign there to be doing the doubting. It's part of the Cartesian view of knowledge, but not the whole of it.

And Massacre... you might consider changing your name to Masochist if you like existentialism. :) Just because no matter how well developed it is, Existentialism has to be the single most depressing worldview that I've ever come across.

*has flashback*

Brian, just remembered an experience like yours. Asking when, by adding a single grain of sand to a pile, we've created a heap of sand. And the guy who gave that lecture is a world-class intellectual in philosophy of mind.

[Heliomance]

The reply to that is "Do it and I'll tell you when you get there"