{"id":10390,"date":"2011-09-03T12:32:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T12:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/09\/03\/back-off-im-grumpy\/"},"modified":"2011-09-03T12:32:43","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T12:32:43","slug":"back-off-im-grumpy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/09\/03\/back-off-im-grumpy\/","title":{"rendered":"Back Off! I’m Grumpy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grumpy\"<\/a> \"Back<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

I spied a composite of the above two images  on the rear window of a beat-to-hell pickup truck. The<\/span>
decal depicted the character Grumpy of Snow White and the Seven  Dwarves brandishing guns in the manner of that Yosemite Sam character one sometimes sees on mud flaps with the logo, "Back off." Can I squeeze any logico-philosophical mileage out of this? But of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

The multiple ambiguity of 'is' has been well-known to philosophers for some time, although it is only recently that an American president has put the ambiguity to work in a successful bid at saving his political  hide. Said president pointed out that much rides on what the meaning of 'is' is.  A key distinction is between the 'is' of identity and the 'is' of predication. The decal exploits this ambiguity to achieve its  humorous effect. 'I am Grumpy' asserts the identity of the speaker  with Grumpy, whereas 'I am grumpy' predicates a property of the  speaker, the property of being grumpy. A key difference between identity and predication is that the former is symmetrical whereas the latter is aysmmetrical. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Please do not confuse asymmetry with nonsymmetry. Loves is a nonsymmetrical relation: if I love you it does not follow that you love me; but it also does not follow that you do not love me.) <\/span><\/p>\n

In previous posts I have explored the idea that many cases of humor derive from logico-conceptual incoherence, as above. The equivocation on 'is,' as between its predicative and identitarian senses, is at the root of the decal's funniness.  That is why it is funny.  Or so I claim.  In fact, I toy with the notion that most humor stems from logico-conceptual incoherence.  Another example is Yogi Berra's "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."  Or:  "Who was that lady I saw you with last night?  That was no lady, that was my wife!"  Or:  "I see you got a haircut.  I got 'em all<\/em> cut."<\/span><\/p>\n

The decal also alludes to a Platonic theme, that of the self-predication of Forms. Forms are not properties but paradigms. Thus the Form Wisdom is the paradigm case of wisdom. As such, Wisdom<\/span>
is wise, The Good is good, Virtue is virtuous — and The Grumpy is grumpy! (Assuming, as Plato would almost certainly not assume, that there is a Form corresponding to 'grumpy.') Thus grumpy things are <\/span>grumpy in virtue of participating in The Grumpy which is grumpy in virtue of participating in itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

A self-participating Form is (identically) what it has. Here the 'is' of identity and the 'is' of predication coalesce. Wisdom is wise in virtue of being identical with itself. God is not a good thing, but Goodness Itself; thus God is not good by having goodness but by being Goodness. Here we glimpse the connection between the self-participation of Forms and the doctrine of the divine simplicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

And all of this squeezed out of one lousy decal on the rear window of a beat-to-hell pickup truck probably owned by some illegal alien.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   I spied a composite of the above two images  on the rear window of a beat-to-hell pickup truck. Thedecal depicted the character Grumpy of Snow White and the Seven  Dwarves brandishing guns in the manner of that Yosemite Sam character one sometimes sees on mud flaps with the logo, "Back off." Can I squeeze any … Continue reading “Back Off! I’m Grumpy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}