Very good indeed. It reminded me of Dr Eric Mascall’s squib which might amuse the theologically minded among your readers:
‘Hark, the herald angels sing:
‘Bultmann is the latest thing!’
[Or they would if he had not
Demythologised the lot.]
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Glad to existentialise!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and Science reconciled.’
Im not surprised to learn that that this ditty on Aquinaswas a favorite of the late great Dominican (and Marx sympathizer) Herbert McCabe.
Ialos really like the Eric Mascall piece.
I had heard that Alan Ross Anderson (a former logic teacher of mine) composed this one morning while hung over at an APA meeting when he found a piano in one of the meeting rooms.
Further verses include:
Oh hesperus and phosphorus it really is a bitch
….
Oh, ought we not throw in our lot
With Smullyan, Chruch and Fitch?
Or ought we groan, “Ah, Quine alone,”
Can tell us which is which?
There is another verse that I believe refers to Anscombe and ends
Oh, ought we all to speak the speech
We learned at mother’s knee?
Or ought we all reverse ourselves
And write the backwards “E”?
It concludes:
Oh A. H. Veach and P. T. Geach
We really must berate
For the subject with the predicate
They leave to copulate
intentions pure they can’t secure with
Frege, Russell, Boole
By treating dear old Barbara
With some symbolic tool.
Very good indeed. It reminded me of Dr Eric Mascall’s squib which might amuse the theologically minded among your readers:
‘Hark, the herald angels sing:
‘Bultmann is the latest thing!’
[Or they would if he had not
Demythologised the lot.]
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Glad to existentialise!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and Science reconciled.’
Im not surprised to learn that that this ditty on Aquinaswas a favorite of the late great Dominican (and Marx sympathizer) Herbert McCabe.
Ialos really like the Eric Mascall piece.
Most amusing. It does make me curious what Kenny actually used to sing. Surely he wouldn’t ascribe a Scotist concept -haecceitas – to Aquinas.
I had heard that Alan Ross Anderson (a former logic teacher of mine) composed this one morning while hung over at an APA meeting when he found a piano in one of the meeting rooms.
Further verses include:
Oh hesperus and phosphorus it really is a bitch
….
Oh, ought we not throw in our lot
With Smullyan, Chruch and Fitch?
Or ought we groan, “Ah, Quine alone,”
Can tell us which is which?
There is another verse that I believe refers to Anscombe and ends
Oh, ought we all to speak the speech
We learned at mother’s knee?
Or ought we all reverse ourselves
And write the backwards “E”?
It concludes:
Oh A. H. Veach and P. T. Geach
We really must berate
For the subject with the predicate
They leave to copulate
intentions pure they can’t secure with
Frege, Russell, Boole
By treating dear old Barbara
With some symbolic tool.