Koan on the problem of other minds
Jan. 21st, 2009 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylvarPhilosophers call this the problem of other minds:
Two Zen monks walking through a garden stroll onto a small bridge over a goldfish pond and stop to lean their elbows on the railing and look contemplatively down at the fish. One monk turns to the other and says, “I wish I were a fish; they are so happy and content.” The second monk scoffs: “How do you know fish are happy? You’re not a fish!” The reply of the first monk: “Ah, but how do you know what I know, since you are not me?”
-- Yoram Bauman, Quantum Microeconomics (p. 13)
Two Zen monks walking through a garden stroll onto a small bridge over a goldfish pond and stop to lean their elbows on the railing and look contemplatively down at the fish. One monk turns to the other and says, “I wish I were a fish; they are so happy and content.” The second monk scoffs: “How do you know fish are happy? You’re not a fish!” The reply of the first monk: “Ah, but how do you know what I know, since you are not me?”
-- Yoram Bauman, Quantum Microeconomics (p. 13)
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 07:02 pm (UTC)"I read your blog."
"That you ask your question answers mine."
"You know nothing of koi! We must fight!"
The second one actually works, philosophically and all.