The philosophy present in this joke is part of the philosophy of language. More specifically relating to the philosophy of fuzziness, or the possible misunderstanding present in many parts of the human speech. In the joke the misunderstanding is between what the dispatcher wants the hunter to do, which is check to see if the man is alive or not to try to help him, and what the hunter actually does, which is shoot the man to make sure he is dead.
The English language, and human speech in general, is littered with sentences that can be taken to have two completely different, yet legitimate, meanings. In the case of this joke, the dispatcher's poor choice of words makes the hunter think something completely opposite of what was intended, even though it makes perfect sense when looked at a second time.
3 comments:
dosent it seem like the trajectory of the gun and the body might influence the 'flatline.'
this seems imprecise and incomplete.
i am talking about the intersection of the three elements if not clear...not that they have to touch...the bullet of the gun is an implied vector...
Well, there is 3 layers to the diagram. The very bottom layer (which is quite difficult to actually see) is the layer of what the dispatcher intended the hunter to do, starting from a 'datum line' which is meant to be the point where the dispatcher tells the hunter to make sure the guy is dead. The gun is on this layer pointing at the man at the middle layer. From that same line is where the 'flatline' happens on the top layer. The middle layer is meant to be what happened to the bloodstained man before and up to the conversation between the dispatcher and the hunter, which is why the man is on the middle layer.
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