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Hello and welcome! My name is Emma and I've been a bookseller for over a decade. I also write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps. This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar” by Thomas Cathcart et al.

Review: “Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar” by Thomas Cathcart et al.

Image Emma 5 June 2012

Thumbs up for Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar…: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein.

Philosophy makes my eyes roll up into my head. For about ten years I’ve had a copy of Sophie’s World on my shelf, whispering “You should read me; I’ll make you smarter.” Finally, I’ve told Sophie to piss off, and have read this instead. At less than 200 pages of biggish type, it was a lot less painful. It’s likely I’ll need to read it a couple of times to retain any of it, but at least I was too busy laughing at the jokes to suffer eyeglaze.

G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “The word ‘good’ has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his mother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.” It’s the qualifier “necessarily” that shows Chesterton possessed a truly philosophical mind.


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Posted in book review
Tagged humor, nonfiction, philosophy, thumbs up
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My bookstore is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, so we will earn a commission if you click through my links and make a purchase. I, personally, am also an affiliate of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and will likewise make a commission if you click through those links and make a purchase. Having to use Amazon doesn’t fill me with joy, but they’re the only good affiliate program for used books available right now. So…that’s the way it is.

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