Saturday, April 5, 2008

Self-Refutation of the Year

From a student's paper: "The good thing about philosophy is that you can't be wrong."

Oh, he's so very, very wrong.

Alternative explanations:

1. He's subscribed to the Nick Naylor school of philosophy (see the 1:30 mark).

2. The term "you" refers specifically to me, in which case the statement is analytically true.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

With a statement like that in it, I bet said paper didn't earn an A.

Then again, if that's his view, he probably thinks that he deserves an A simply for thinking what he does.

Unknown said...

Your response should then be "yes, but if that's true, then you also can't be right. Thus, I am left with no choice but to give you an F. While you may not be wrong, this paper requires that you be right, and so I am forced to fail you. Better luck next year."

:-)

-JB