Philosophical Haiku

Home , Barry Stroud, Sidney Morgenbesser

Philosophical Haiku

Scepticism Richard Rorty Immanuel Kant If doubt’s uncertain, The test of truth is The key to making should I be doubting the whether it works or not sense of Reality is doubt and our imprint on it. that my doubt is true? pragmatism works. Daniel Dennett The Transcendental Sidney Morgenbesser Philosophy Argument Pragmatism is or science are your If it must be true, fine except for the small options does that mean it really is fact ‘I think I’ll try both!’ true? that it doesn’t work. or just true for us? Bernard Williams Freedom vs. Theory’s point is not Moral Relativism Determinism to justify ethics but When in Rome do as Person walks in a to be true to it. they do even if their easterly direction on might a ship heading west. Barry Stroud may not be your right. Values may seem more Freedom and than subjective but are Moral Objectivism Determinism no When in Rome only Person decides to more real in nature do as the Romans do if take a walk southward on they are behaving. a John Rawls ship heading northward To buy justice at The Prisoner’s Dilemma? . the price of relevance The answer lies in David Hume may making it the prisoners’ Little is as it still be good value. dilemma, of course. appears but that shouldn’t stop Plato Socrates us being who we are. Love of wisdom is The recognition gained not by being told that profound ignorance Hilary Putnam truths but is Giving up the view by finding them out. the source of knowledge. from nowhere lets in the view Thomas Nagel Isaiah Berlin of humanity. Seeing the subjective I am a fox who relate to the objective knows the rightness of and vice versa. one thing: that monism is wrong.

This affair wasn't what you’d describe as love at first sight, Quite the opposite in fact. I hardly even noticed her at first, I never thought someone like her Would want someone like me, Not at my age anyway. How wrong we can be about these things, hey!

She said that she fell for me Well before I even knew she was there, She was confident that I would fall for her if I just gave it some time, “Once I’d worked my initial charms on you” she confessed in a dream much later, She wasn’t wrong about that.

The first time I felt her presence wasn't one of my proudest moments if I’m honest. But it was definitely memorable and life-changing as they say, And it was pretty clear from then on That we would be an item for a while, If not longer.

There were times Few and far in-between I might add, When I felt we might end up going our separate ways, That we might grow out of each other. But for some reason beyond me, That wasn't to be.

My family and friends have never warmed to her. Some say she's a bad influence, That she’s made me moody and irascible, And a few, I suspect, have grown bored of us, Yet they all seem at one that I haven’t been myself since she showed up, Perhaps they're right.

So when everyone has left and returned to their busy lives, And the room turns still and silent, She remains inseparable to the last, Keeping me company, Never letting me go.

I used to think you got to choose your own companion, But, of course, they can choose you, Either way, it’s now clear that we’re both in this together To the bitter end, Till death do us part.

Keeping Watch

Sitting in the chair that's nearest his bed, The one with its back to the window, The other with his sky blue fleece half-draped over its arm, And a bag of fresh linen busily occupying its seat, His mobile phone on the bedside locker Recharging itself from the night before, Beside it a glass of water Standing still and attentive, Their familiar companion fast asleep Untroubled by what the day will bring. Soon the human world will make its presence felt In all its noisy, smelly, touchy, frenetic self.

And as the day gets tired and runs out of light The night takes over and darkness arrives. By then his fleece, linen bag, phone have been gathered up, The half-drunk glass of water emptied, rinsed and reshelved, The chair with its back to the window unmoved, facing an empty bed.

Philip Larkin

Philip A. Larkin made extraordinary the ordinary.

Philosophy Lessons

Socrates says profound ignorance is wisdom In that case why didn’t I get A+ in maths, David Hume claims we‘re not the same selves we began from Yet I’m pretty sure the awkward kid in the photo isn’t anyone else.

Johannes Kepler taught us the earth orbits the sun But that’s not how it feels at night looking at a star, Hume (again!) says that causation's an illusion Try telling that to my mum when I got hit on my bike by a car.

Immanuel Kant thinks that reality is what we make it But thinking that never got me to school any quicker, A.J. Ayer argues that morals are cognitively vapid The victims of our class bully would beg to differ.

Plato says the examined life is the only one worth living, That’s all very well but it’s not much good for anything

Old friends

You can’t make old friends. They’re leather shoes shaped over time to the contours and movement of our step, and though they may not be as shiny as they once were or worn as much as they could, you’d be loath to lose them.

Both Sides

I can't remember the reason why we fell out, It wasn't one big thing of course, Lots of little things that piled up to create a fence between us.

There were times I tried to sort things out, But you never listened of course, More interested in the fence than anything else.

I guess there were times I shut you out, I wouldn't have listened of course, Too busy seeing things from my side of the fence.

But now that you've gone and I'm here alone, The fence each of us built together Looks as silly as an old-style telephone.