Saturday, October 11, 2014

Insane Logician

There is a well known joke about somebody, nobody and mad. I don't think it is just a joke.

Let me explain this through the following construct.

There are three types of people in this world:

1. Somebody
2. Nobody
3. Mad

'Mad' was seriously studying classical logic and innovating new syllogisms when the existing one became an obstacle to intellectual progress. Mad recognized this but the professors said that the existing systems are enough to understand everything. Furious he told two of his friends (''Nobody and 'Somebody') that the existing systems are not 'everything' as they don't explain 'nothing'.

Nobody said, 'The only statement that is correct is 'Nobody is perfect, I am nobody'. Both of them laughed hysterically.  Mad did not take that too kindly. He retorted, "As you are nobody I see nothing next to me and I am just going to beat you as I would be beating nobody." Somebody said, "You are mad and the person you are beating is nobody. I am the only one who is somebody."

Mad said, "Then I am going to beat somebody and not just anybody".


That's three part syllogism for you.

Are you mad, nobody or somebody?

5 comments:

Varun said...

Interesting... Although I didn't quite get the hidden meaning... Is it the rebel who is going against conventional understanding? Against his instructor? Against the world?

Unknown said...

The rebel is the one who experiences 'ennui' when he finds out the limitations of the existing system. What is worse is that the department of philosophy is closed to newer ways of thinking and newer systems of logic. This so called outlier realizes that the existing frameworks have led to a poverty of imagination among the authorities and society in general. They do not even know the essence of what 'everything' or 'nothing' is as a result language has become a useful tool to spread exploitation and confusion. 'Mad' is the rebel who points out the limitations of the three part syllogism. There can never be anybody. There can only be somebody, nobody and mad. Somebody is a respectable individual who follows instructions without asking illegitimate questions.He is more able to tolerate 'nobody' as nobody does not threaten him. This is why he laughs along with nobody after it is claimed that only nobody is perfect. Mad points out the hypocrisy in the argument and suggests that it would not matter if he admonishes nobody as nobody does not exist and he should rightly not retaliate as he has no value in life. Somebody makes it worse by calling the outlier mad as a result of his perception and mad admonishes somebody and not just anybody. Anybody does not exist as a result of the constraints of language. Reality and truth are not relevant. This rebel is the one who is trying to bring about a paradigm shift by contributing to his field. He gets rejected on account of being a path breaker. He is the misunderstood contributor.

Varun said...

Thats a nice explanation. People like mad are very often not understood in their time.

Anonymous said...

Should we explode this prison or just fight the imprisonment?

Anonymous said...

Should we explode this prison or just fight the imprisonment? - Amar