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Does Santa Exist?
- Author
- Eric Kaplan
- Narrator
- Sean Runnette
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish Date
- 16 October 2014
- Run Time
- 5 hours 43 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Even after we outgrow the jolly fellow, the essential paradox persists: There are some things we dearly believe in that are not universally acknowledged as real. In Does Santa Exist?, Kaplan shows how philosophy giants Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein strove to smooth over this uncomfortable meeting of the real and unreal—and failed. From there he turns to mysticism's attempts to resolve such paradoxes. Finally, he alights on comedy as the ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradoxes of life.
Kaplan delves deeper into what this means, from how our physical brains work to his own personal confrontations with life's biggest questions: If we're all going to die, what's the point of anything? What is a perfect moment? What can you say about God? Or Santa?
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Details
- Author
- Eric Kaplan
- Narrator
- Sean Runnette
- Duration
- 5 hours 43 minutes
- Release Date
- 16 October 2014
- ISBN
- 9781494571511
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Genre
- Humour, Humour, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology, Philosophy, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy
Synopsis
Metaphysics isn't ordinarily much of a laughing matter. But in the hands of acclaimed comedy writer and scholar Eric Kaplan, a search for the truth about old St. Nick becomes a deeply insightful, laugh-out-loud discussion of the way some things exist but may not really be there—just like Santa and his reindeer.Even after we outgrow the jolly fellow, the essential paradox persists: There are some things we dearly believe in that are not universally acknowledged as real. In Does Santa Exist?, Kaplan shows how philosophy giants Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein strove to smooth over this uncomfortable meeting of the real and unreal—and failed. From there he turns to mysticism's attempts to resolve such paradoxes. Finally, he alights on comedy as the ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradoxes of life.Kaplan delves deeper into what this means, from how our physical brains work to his own personal confrontations with life's biggest questions: If we're all going to die, what's the point of anything? What is a perfect moment? What can you say about God? Or Santa?
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