{"id":12230,"date":"2014-10-17T09:34:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T16:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/?p=12230"},"modified":"2014-10-17T09:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T16:35:26","slug":"does-santa-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/does-santa-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Santa Exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a claim out there — one that is about 95% true<\/a>, as it turns out — that if you pick a Wikipedia article at random<\/a>, then click on the first (non-trivial) link, and keep clicking on the first link of each subsequent article, you will end up at Philosophy<\/a>. More specifically, you will end up at a loop that runs through Reality, Existence, Awareness, Consciousness, and Quality (philosophy), as well as Philosophy itself. It’s not hard to see why. These are the Big Issues, concerning the fundamental nature of the universe at a deep level. Almost any inquiry, when pressed to ever-greater levels of precision and abstraction, will get you there.<\/p>\n

\"Does<\/a> Take, for example, the straightforward-sounding question “Does Santa Exist?” You might be tempted to say “No” and move on. (Or you might be tempted to say “Yes” and move on, I don’t know — a wide spectrum of folks seem to frequent this blog.) But even to give such a common-sensical answer is to presume some kind of theory of existence (ontology), not to mention a theory of knowledge (epistemology). So we’re allowed to ask “How do you know?” and “What do you really mean by exist<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

These are the questions that underlie an entertaining and thought-provoking new book by Eric Kaplan<\/a>, called Does Santa Exist?: A Philosophical Investigation<\/em><\/a>. Eric has a resume to be proud of: he is a writer on The Big Bang Theory<\/em>, and has previously written for Futurama<\/em> and other shows, but he is also a philosopher, currently finishing his Ph.D. from Berkeley. In the new book, he uses the Santa question as a launching point for a rewarding tour through some knotty philosophical issues. He considers not only a traditional attack on the question, using Logic and the beloved principles of reason, but sideways approaches based on Mysticism as well. (“The Buddha ought to be able to answer our questions about the universe for like ten minutes, and then tell us how to be free of suffering.”) His favorite, though, is the approach based on Comedy, which is able to embrace contradiction in a way that other approaches can’t quite bring themselves to do.<\/p>\n

Most people tend to have a pre-existing take on the Santa question. Hence, the book trailer for Does Santa Exist?<\/em> employs a uniquely appropriate method: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. Watch and interact, and you will find the answers you seek. <\/p>\n

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