In the Republican Presidential debate on Tuesday, November 10, Senator Marco Rubio said: "Welders make more money than philosophers.  We need more welders and less philosophers."  Senator Rubio might have learned from reading Plato that politicians often play fast and loose with the truth, and this is no exception.  But it is also a moment that calls for another limerick.  So here goes:

Let's hear it for Pliny the Elder,
Philosopher, discipline-melder.
But to some that poor chump
Would be richer than Trump,
If his name had been "Pliny the Welder".

JACQUES DERRIDA (1930-2004)

“To signify, language is needed,

But signs have all been superseded.

All presence is absence,

And absence is non-sense:

In selling this crap I've succeeded."

WILFRID SELLARS (1912-1989)

I’m down with my man, Wilfrid Sellars,

He’s one of those cool Pittsburgh fellars,

Just totally driven

To junk what he’s given:

He's one of the great myth dispellars.

DONALD DAVIDSON (1917-2003)

With that grand Davidsonian flair

It was Donald who said, “Don’t despair!

When you meet someone new

And they’re talking to you,

Just assume that there's something up there."

GOTTLOB FREGE (1848-1925)

“You all have to read my Begriffsschrift,

Post Kant it should bring you great uplift.

The symbols are crazy

And all oopsydaisy,

It's logic's remarkable Boole-shift."

WILLARD VAN ORMAN QUINE (by Warren Goldfarb)

Van Quine thought that meaning is dead

It’s not just that it ain’t in the head

You can translate one way

But there’s always much play

In construing what others have said

Note: Warren Goldfarb, prosodist extraordinaire, was my philosophical (and logical) mentor when I was an undergraduate at Harvard (1982-1986).  Had it not been for his help and sage advice, I would not be a philosopher, I would not have met my spouse, my children would not exist, and so on.  Ergo: thanks, Warren!

AND ONE FINAL META-LIMERICK

That iambic pentameter’s cool,

Had to learn it in primary school.

But trimeter’s the best

When the foot’s anapest:

In great poetry limericks rule.