(This article first appeared at intellectualtakeout.com on December 16, 2019.)
First-rate writers and teachers tell us over and over that good writing should be clear and concise, that it should aim to be understood, and that it should avoid using artifice and pomp in an attempt to sound intelligent. Unfortunately, academics ignore this all the time, as evidenced by the following joke about the philosopher Heidegger found in the delightful book, Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates.
So Heidegger and a hippo stroll up to the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter says, ‘Listen, we’ve only got room for one more today. So whoever of the two of you gives me the best answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” gets to come in.’
And Heidegger says, ‘To think Being itself explicitly requires disregarding being to the extent that it is only grounded and interpreted in terms of beings and for beings, as in all metaphysics.’
But before the hippo can grunt one word, Saint Peter says to him, ‘Today’s your lucky day, Hippy!’
First-rate writers and teachers tell us over and over that good writing should be clear and concise, that it should aim to be understood, and that it should avoid using artifice and pomp in an attempt to sound intelligent. Unfortunately, academics ignore this all the time, as evidenced by the following joke about the philosopher Heidegger found in the delightful book, Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates.
So Heidegger and a hippo stroll up to the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter says, ‘Listen, we’ve only got room for one more today. So whoever of the two of you gives me the best answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” gets to come in.’
And Heidegger says, ‘To think Being itself explicitly requires disregarding being to the extent that it is only grounded and interpreted in terms of beings and for beings, as in all metaphysics.’
But before the hippo can grunt one word, Saint Peter says to him, ‘Today’s your lucky day, Hippy!’