A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

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Eowyn Kills the Witch King



Description: The Witch King, from Lord of the Rings, in the battle of pelennor fields.

Witch King: "You fool. No man can kill me. Die now."

Eowyn: "I am no man!"

John Locke: "Whoa whoa whoa, time out. That's clearly not what he meant."

Roland Barthes: "Wrong, Locke! He is merely quoting a prophecy, and any interpretation is equally valid. The author's original intent is irrelevant when analyzing a text."

John Locke: "Language is a representation of the ideas of the speaker, and he obviously meant “no human can kill me.”"

Locke: "Enough of your relativism, Barthes, you can't beat a prophesy with a pun!"
Barthes: "Says who?"
Locke: "The prophet!"
Barthes: "Once a prophecy exists the prophet is only one of many interpreters!"

Eowyn: "Enough! I don't care. I was just trying to say something badass before killing him."

Description: Eowyn stabs the Witch King in the face, killing him.

Barthes: "Is it just me, or was he a bit overconfident that no man could kill him when he can die from getting stabbed in the face?"
Eowyn: "Yeah, i was a bit surprised that was all it took to be honest."
"I never expected someone would try to...stab me."
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John Locke gave us one of the first modern theories of language, well before philosophy of language really took off. He more or less described language as a representation of the ideas of the speaker, rather than referring to external objects in the world. So if someone talks about a tree, the word "tree" doesn't strictly refer to a concrete object that exists, but only represents the idea of a tree in the mind of a person attempting to communicate. According to this view, mistakes in understanding language are mistakes in correctly interpreting the intent or ideas of the speaker.

Later theorists of language, like Roland Barthes, who is most famous for his ideas about the "death of the author", viewed language as a much more public enterprise. Once a given speech act occurs, or especially a given text, it is open to interpretation and re-interpretation by the public. The original intentions or ideas of the author aren't necessarily more valid than those of any other interpreter.

John Locke gave us one of the first modern theories of language, well before philosophy of language really took off. He more or less described language as a representation of the ideas of the speaker, rather than referring to external objects in the world. So if someone talks about a tree, the word "tree" doesn't strictly refer to a concrete object that exists, but only represents the idea of a tree in the mind of a person attempting to communicate. According to this view, mistakes in understanding language are mistakes in correctly interpreting the intent or ideas of the speaker.

Later theorists of language, like Roland Barthes, who is most famous for his ideas about the "death of the author", viewed language as a much more public enterprise. Once a given speech act occurs, or especially a given text, it is open to interpretation and re-interpretation by the public. The original intentions or ideas of the author aren't necessarily more valid than those of any other interpreter.

Philosophers in this comic: John Locke, Roland Barthes
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