Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar

Categories: Nonfiction

The subtitle of Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein’s Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar is Understanding Philosophy through Jokes.  If you’ve ever regretted skipping (or taking!) Philosophy 101, this little book’s for you.

Cathcart and Klein explain the whole history of western philosophy in ten mini chapters and a hundred or so illustrative jokes.  Not exactly clean and politically correct (neither the philosophy nor the jokes, be forewarned), but admirably clear and concise. 

From essentialism to elephant jokes, from Karl Marx to Groucho Marx, you’ll be surprised at how much fun philosophy can be.  So if life has been seeming unusually nasty, brutish, and short to you lately, pick up this short book.