Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Kierkegaard's toothache

 (Remember to post your thoughts on Kierkegaard & TL 3.)
 Schopenhauer: "Hey Kierkegaard, how's it going?"
Kierkegaard: "Not good, Schopenhauer, I'm in complete despair."

Schopenhauer: "Oh? Why is that?"
Kierkegaard: "It's just that i have this horrible toothache."

Schopenhauer: "Oh...uh...okay..."
Kierkegaard: "What?"

Schopenhauer: "It's just, i thought it would be for some kind of...you know... deep existential reason."

Kierkegaard: "Oh right, i mean yeah, deep existential reasons too, life is meaningless and... OWWW ...it's just it hurts all the time, it's so annoying!"

Schopenhauer: "You should probably go to the dentist..."
Kierkegaard: "And just when i thought my despair couldn't get worse!"
Schopenhauer: "Dude, just go, it'll be fine."

Dentist: "Alright, all finished, how do you feel?"

Description: Kierkegaard is sitting in the dentist chair.

Kierkegaard: "I feel a terrible despair, for life is finite and we are alone, without guidance, and yet every choice we make is permanent and absolute, forever closing off the possible lives we could have lived!"

Dentist: "Uh..."
Kierkegaard: "No, that's good, it means the toothache is gone and i can once again focus on the despair that haunts the core of my being. Thank you!"
(More Existential comics...)

Which reminds me:
'I think, therefore I am,' is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches.--Milan Kundera

3 comments:

  1. In addition to being quite funny, I think this comic further drive home the connection between philosophical reflection and leisure (insert: good health). It can be hard to think deep thoughts, let alone organize them, write/type them out, etc., when you're in chronic pain. Of course, there are exceptions: I've heard Marx, about whom we're spoken recently, had some challenging health problems.

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    1. And Nietzsche, who apparently was in constant pain. And many philosophers who were in generally good physical health -- so many were peripatetic, after all! -- had emotional challenges to overcome. (See, for instance, John Kaag's new book on James, mentioned below.) Come to think of it, that helps account for why so many philosophers have been walkers: it's therapeutic on many levels.

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    2. Yeah, a brisk stroll has been our best form of exercise these days! Thankfully, the weather's begun to cooperate, too.

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