The Courage Not to Act!

I'm hoping that your excitement that I've ACTUALLY POSTED something will make you feel well-disposed towards my utter lack of referencing in regards to this new cartoon. (I definitely read it somewhere, I think it was Kierkegaard's notebooks or a minor source that seems to escape the tendrils of wiki-quote!) While searching for a reference I did find another Kierkegaard quotation that is just begging for a cartoon, so keep your eyes peeled for something to do with this. It certainly makes me feel better about not posting for awhile! But I have been drawing a few things. This little fellow below is Data Entry Pig, a new character I've been developing! He's PASSIONATE about retail! And most other things that will get him through the job interview. Also right at the bottom is the fiirst of many cartoons attempting to find some humour in my brother's brain tumour. There he is, getting zapped by Dr. Blofeld. Not many people know this but Dr. Blofeld did in fact train as a radiologist, before turning to plans of world domination. And that's me as a cartoon.

Anyway, I won't leave it so long next time. Cheerio! becca xo

More Animation!

Short story: New ANIMATION HERE!

Long story: I guess it tends to be the way with me that I'll do a few cartoons in a week and then announce to the internet that: YES I AM A PROPER BLOGGER! and almost as soon as I say this I lose all motivation for posting whatsoever. Well, it's more complicated than that really, you'll find out more about it when I start one of my autobiographical cartoons in the next couple of weeks. It's going to be called 'Gallows Humour: or How I learnt to stop worrying and love my brother's brain tumour'. Yes folks, this is the mysterious illness my brother has been suffering from. It's crappy to say the least, but we're trying to keep a sense of humour: we've also tentatively begun work on 'Cancer! The Musical!'

Anyway, the news from Being & Tim is that I've made another little animation, this one based on a cartoon I posted last year. The whole idea of the category of being functioning as a predicate, or a label, is all to do with St. Anselm's proof of God. This proof hinges on the idea that God isn't a 'normal' idea, but is rather an infinite one, and it seems as though an infinitely good God that did not exist would not yet reach the limits of our thought: but rather would have to be succeeded by an infinitely good God that did exist.

Kant's famous argument against Anselm is that 'Being is obviously not a real predicate': which is to say that existence in turn is not a 'normal' concept: it's not like 'being blue' or 'being hungry': whether or not the thing exists in the real world doesn't make a difference to the concept: if this is hard to get your head round then think about this: does a 1 kg bag of sugar that you have in your hand weigh more or less than a 1 kg bag of sugar that you are imagining?!!

As you can see it all gets pretty confused, but if this isn't clear then go here and watch the animation and all will become clear!

haha.

beccaxo

Grey Mice Think Alike

When my dad was about the age he is in this picture, he did a test where he was asked to fill in the sentence 'G___ M___ think alike'. As you might have guessed, he thought that the answer was grey mice, which I've always thought really cute, and have finally got round to illustrating. He probably didn't imagine that they were talking about Derrida, but I thought it was funnier that way...Oh, and I'm also working on some ideas for new non-philosophical comics, so if you like inappropriate humour about illness and/or social satire featuring pigs in ruffs, then stay tuned! Happy Secular Chocolate-Scoffing Weekend! beccaxo

The Limits of Sense.

Part of the problem of doing a pseudo-philosophy cartoon is that people assume you always know the philosophy behind it, and have done lots of research, rather than simply heard your lecturer say something mildly amusing and done a silly cartoon of it. Most of my cartoons relating to the early Wittgenstein emphasise this: along with many others (i hope!) I am quite happy to admit that I have little to no idea what Wittgenstein's  Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is really about. I mean I could say that it is generally about the referential structure of language, the logical system extending from this and the clear delineation between sense and nonsense (hence the limits of sense, a term Wittgenstein uses), but I couldn't really say why he thought this. People try and explain it to me and I hear the word logic and fall asleep. It's just a problem I have.

The later Wittgenstein though: he's much better.

beccaxo

p.s I do know some stuff about philosophy, it's just that most of it involves Nietzsche. I even have a Nietzsche watch so basically, I must be a philosopher.

p.p.s Sorry about the bad quality of the picture, I've gone to my parents, so have had to use a camera not a scanner to get them onto the interweb. I'll change them asap...