Saturday, November 05, 2005

Conference / Philosopher's Humour 2

Today I'll be spending most of the day at the Philosophy Faculty's Graduate Conference. In the meantime, the latest amusing sayings, from yesterday's Law and the State (legal philosophy) seminar:

1. After someone had made a point by referring to "that case where..." John Gardner's response was "That's the first time a case has ever been mentioned in this class. And it's very appropriate that you didn't even know the name..."

2. John Gardner again, this time his comment "That's unusual" after the presenter had said "The reason I like [Jim] Harris is that he is a lawyer".

From today's conference:

[Michael Ferry on Reasons and Supererogation]

1. If you're allowed to count costs to yourself twice (from a neutral and a personal perspective), we don't think you're morally required to throw yourself on a grenade to save one other person and a cat. "As long as you're worth more than a cat"

2. "It's not social in the sense that it involves other people. Ok, that's inconsistent, but you know what I mean."

And an interesting quote I just came across here: "The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools"-Thucydides.

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