The Wrath of the Sea. Beetle in a Box Five naked, blindfolded men get into a hottub. The water represents the totality of facts, what we feel with our hands represents our picture of the world, and our penises... Didn't get the joke? 'The Beetle in a box' is a thought experiment by Ludwig Wiggenstein which attempts to show that private language an incoherent concept. The idea he is attacking is the idea that we could, if we chose, have a private language used to reference immediate sensations, such as pain.
He asks us to imagine a group of people, each with a box and a 'beetle' in the box. Each person can only look in their own box, similar to how each person can only feel their own pain. None of this is particularly important to the joke, as it's basically just a penis joke. Permanent Link to this Comic:
Wireless Philosophy | Problem of Free Will | Wi Phi. Allegory of the Cave. Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms. The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this. In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. From Great Dialogues of Plato (Warmington and Rouse, eds.) Here are some students’ illustrations of Plato’s Cave Go back to lecture on the Phaedo Go back to lecture on the “One Over Many” Argument Go to next lecture on Criticism of Forms Need a quick review of the Theory of Forms?
Return to the PHIL 320 Home Page Copyright © 2006, S. Dokkōdō. The "Dokkōdō" [ (Japanese: 独行道?) ; "The Path of Aloneness", "The Way to Go Forth Alone", or "The Way of Walking Alone"] is a short work written by Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵) a week before he died in 1645. It consists of either nineteen or twenty-one precepts; precepts 4 and 20 are omitted from the former version. "Dokkodo" was largely composed on the occasion of Musashi giving away his possessions in preparation for death, and was dedicated to his favorite disciple, Terao Magonojō (to whom the earlier Go rin no sho [The Book of Five Rings] had also been dedicated), who took them to heart. "Dokkōdō" expresses a stringent, honest, and ascetic view of life. Precepts[edit] References[edit]