Political Philosophy and Revelation

7. The Rational Animal

75 7. The Rational Animal The greater part of students are not born with abilities to construct systems, or advance knowledge, nor can have any hope beyond that of becoming intelligent hearers in the schools of art, or being able to comprehend what others teach. Even those, to whom Providence has allowed greater strength of understanding , can expect only to improve a single science. In every other path of learning they must be content to follow opinions, which they are not able to examine; and, even in that which they claim as peculiarly their own, can seldom add more than some small particle of knowledge of the hereditary stock devolved to them from ancient times, the collective labour of a thousand intellects.  Samuel Johnson The prospective for wonder and thought—and for a sociality founded on and conducive to thought—are supported by striking differences in the mouth itself. Animal jaws, previously equipped to grasp and crush, are extensively remodeled, as are the snout, teeth, tongue, and muscles of the face. The human mouth—still the organ of ingestion, taste, and mastication—has acquired the flexibility and subtle mobility to serve the expression of emotions and especially the articulation of speech. Where sight once served mouth, now the mouth gives utterance to what mind through eyes has seen.  Leon Kass I • As a gift that she thought I might enjoy, a student gave me a book entitled , Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes. I often point out to students that, according to Aristotle , wit is a sign of intelligence. If someone has to have repeated the An earlier version of this chapter was published online in First Principles Journal, June 16, 2010. Epigraphs are from Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, no. 121, Tuesday, May 14, 1751, in Selected Essays (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books, 2003), 215; Leon Kass, The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfection of Our Nature (New York: Free Press, 1994), 75. 76  Sufficient Understanding same joke four or five times before he gets the point, chances are that he is not the swiftest intellect on the block. Intelligence is a question of seeing relations through distinguishing things. And relations are at the heart of metaphysics, of how things stand and stand to each other. Such was more or less Aristotle’s point. Here is one of the “philosophical” jokes. It combines language, mathematics, and logic. “Salesman: ‘Ma’am, this vacuum cleaner will cut your work in half.’ Customer: ‘Terrific! Give me two of them.’”1 When does this little story become funny? It is precisely when we realize that no amount of cutting time can result in having no work to do with the cleaner. Yet, the argument seems valid enough in its form. Intelligence means holding together in one mind all the variables pertinent to the issue. No one can explain from the outside why this story is funny. Its humor consists in some one person in his mind hearing and understanding all the meanings together, including the incongruity of the lady’s conclusion even though, in mathematical terms, it is perfectly exact. That is, in the lady’s mind, the first machine takes up one half of available work and the other the second half. The same story, however, can bring up the Zeno problem. That is, once the lady purchases the first vacuum, the second would only clean half of what is left. Understood this way, the lady would need an infinite number of vacuum cleaners to get to a no-work situation, if then. The only thing that needs to be added is that we do not know whether the response was from a “dumb blonde” sort of lady, or from a philosophical lady who understood perfectly well the issue but wanted to see if the salesman did. Aristotle indicates that man is by his nature a rational animal. He adds that he is also an animal that speaks, not just yells or grunts. He is thus also a political animal, one that accomplishes things resulting from his speaking. I recall once waiting in the parking lot of Sibley Hospital here in Washington, D.C. Across the fence, a large new building was being constructed. It was about two stories above the ground 1. Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), 47. [18.227.114.125] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 02:17...