Occasional Tales

Addison vs. Locke. Near the start of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , Hume is talking about distinctions between abstract and practical philosophy, noting that more abstract philosophers tend to be forgotten. He says And Addison, perhaps, will be read with pleasure, when Locke shall be entirely forgotten. Out of curiosity, and knowing that such a survey is of dubious accuracy at best, I put Addison and Locke into Google to see whose name is more frequently attested. The results are Addison, Joseph (essayist) 3,820,000 results Locke, John (philosopher) 1,870,000 results Of course, I have no way of telling whether anyone reads Addison for pleasure, or Locke for that matter, or whether the pair of them are only seen in fragments on the relevant courses at university which give no particular pleasure to anyone. Because I didn’t think that Addison counted as a philosopher, I’m not sure why he’s being mentioned beside Locke except as a means for Hume to parallel Cicero and Aristot...

More powerful than a Presocratic. Aristotle, Rousseau and Kant are going for a walk when Rousseau notices that a slave girl (wearing a sexy bikini, of course) swimming in the lake has found herself in difficulty. Rousseau has merely made the observation, but is otherwise not inclined to endanger himself. Kant jumps into the water, but finds himself in difficulty in short order. Aristotle rips the branch off a tree, and throws it unerringly to Kant who then extricates the slave girl, and they return to the bank safe and sound. Aristotle praises Kant for his intentions, but is less forgiving about his lapse in common sense. His good intentions just weren't enough. Rousseau, meanwhile, says nothing and merely cops a sneaky feel. Who's the hero? Overall, if we're scoring this on points, then Aristotle. Kant comes second for attempting to be heroic. Rousseau doesn't exactly lose, because he's most likely to score with the slave girl afterwards. That is, of course, unless...