philosophy-3
Original: philosophy-3 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman with red hair (offscreen left, leaning in): Do you think philosophy teaches us truth or is just a sort of conversational game we engage in?
Woman with dark curly hair: It's a tough question.
Panel 2:
Dark-haired woman: I tried reading Socrates, but out of my virtue of moderation I quit partway.
Panel 3:
Dark-haired woman (walking away into the distance): Then I got into Marcus Aurelius, but I found his books are external to my good character.
Panel 4:
Dark-haired woman: So I read Kant until I realized I had no duty to continue.
Panel 5:
Dark-haired woman: At that point I switched to JS Mill, but it was lowering my overall happiness, so I quit.
Panel 6 (tiny figures on a snowy slope):
Dark-haired woman: So I tried having a rule to read Nietzsche, but it turns out rules are for the weak.
Panel 7:
Dark-haired woman: Which led me to try Camus, which felt pointless until I decided I could create my own source of meaning.
Panel 8 (the two women now tiny atop a snowy peak):
Red-haired woman: Which was?
Dark-haired woman: Mostly I sit and watch cartoons all day.
Votey:
Caption: How.? We've been trapped on the snow for ten years.
Speech bubble: In my MIND.
Woman with red hair (offscreen left, leaning in): Do you think philosophy teaches us truth or is just a sort of conversational game we engage in?
Woman with dark curly hair: It's a tough question.
Panel 2:
Dark-haired woman: I tried reading Socrates, but out of my virtue of moderation I quit partway.
Panel 3:
Dark-haired woman (walking away into the distance): Then I got into Marcus Aurelius, but I found his books are external to my good character.
Panel 4:
Dark-haired woman: So I read Kant until I realized I had no duty to continue.
Panel 5:
Dark-haired woman: At that point I switched to JS Mill, but it was lowering my overall happiness, so I quit.
Panel 6 (tiny figures on a snowy slope):
Dark-haired woman: So I tried having a rule to read Nietzsche, but it turns out rules are for the weak.
Panel 7:
Dark-haired woman: Which led me to try Camus, which felt pointless until I decided I could create my own source of meaning.
Panel 8 (the two women now tiny atop a snowy peak):
Red-haired woman: Which was?
Dark-haired woman: Mostly I sit and watch cartoons all day.
Votey:
Caption: How.? We've been trapped on the snow for ten years.
Speech bubble: In my MIND.
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic. A red-haired woman asks a dark-haired woman whether philosophy teaches truth or is just a conversational game; the dark-haired woman says it's a tough question, then recounts trying philosopher after philosopher and quitting each one with a punny justification drawn from that philosopher's ideas: she quit Socrates 'out of my virtue of moderation,' found Marcus Aurelius 'external to my good character,' read Kant until she realized she 'had no duty to continue,' dropped JS Mill because it was 'lowering my overall happiness,' tried a rule to read Nietzsche but 'rules are for the weak,' and tried Camus, which felt pointless until she decided she could create her own meaning. As she talks, the background gradually transforms into a snowy mountain and the two women shrink into tiny figures climbing to a snowy peak. Asked what her own source of meaning was, she answers: 'Mostly I sit and watch cartoons all day.' Votey (aftercomic): the two tiny figures stand on the snowy peak; one says 'How.? We've been trapped on the snow for ten years,' and a speech bubble replies, 'In my MIND.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.