![An English, a French and a German philosopher are asked to write a treatise on camels.
The English philosopher moves to Egypt and observes camels for two years, recording every single detail. He returns home and condenses his extensive notes into two volumes totaling 1,300 pages. The book is boring and tedious, but earns him praise for being exemplary scholarship.
The French philosopher goes to the Jardin des Plantes for an afternoon, chats with the zookeeper, pokes his umbrella at a camel a few times, goes home and writes a monograph over the course of a weekend. The study, Of Camel and Man: Reflections on Mammal Being, is called either brilliant or frivolous by reviewers.
Meanwhile, the German philosopher locks himself up in his office and isn’t seen for many months. When he emerges, he presents a 600-page book called The Ontology of the Camel as Derived from the Category of the Ego.
[I wrote this up for the benefit of my undergrads a while ago. I don’t remember exactly where I read the joke—it may have been in something by Horkheimer]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcx3nk3mqr1qaetvio1_500.jpg)
An English, a French and a German philosopher are asked to write a treatise on camels.
The English philosopher moves to Egypt and observes camels for two years, recording every single detail. He returns home and condenses his extensive notes into two volumes totaling 1,300 pages. The book is boring and tedious, but earns him praise for being exemplary scholarship.
The French philosopher goes to the Jardin des Plantes for an afternoon, chats with the zookeeper, pokes his umbrella at a camel a few times, goes home and writes a monograph over the course of a weekend. The study, Of Camel and Man: Reflections on Mammal Being, is called either brilliant or frivolous by reviewers.
Meanwhile, the German philosopher locks himself up in his office and isn’t seen for many months. When he emerges, he presents a 600-page book called The Ontology of the Camel as Derived from the Category of the Ego.
[I wrote this up for the benefit of my undergrads a while ago. I don’t remember exactly where I read the joke—it may have been in something by Horkheimer]
