
Does Santa Exist?
A Philosophical Investigation
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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Eric Kaplan
About this listen
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?
©2014 Eric Linus Kaplan (P)2014 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
There is little in philosophy that this book doesn't cover. The buddha, kabalism, as well as christianity all get tied up in the Santa conspiracy. The author would be a blast at cocktail parties; all sorts of intellectual challenges with laugh out loud humor made the book very entertaining. There is a section on comedy as a philosophy, an argument I had not heard before.
I will probably always feel that anyone who portrays Santa as anything other than make believe is doing more harm than good. This book is probably the best argument out there as to why I'm wrong.
A blast at cocktail parties
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Sucked
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Non-peer reviewed Futurama spit ball ideas
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