My seniors are doing a brief study on philosophy and, in order to help them learn a little bit about several famous philosophers, I've been writing limericks about them. There's something ironic about condensing a man's life into five lines...particularly men as verbally prolific as all these guys. I know I wouldn't want just anyone to summarize my life like this...unless I had a hand in the creation of the summary. Maybe it's not even forgivable, but it helps me remember who they were, and maybe it will help my students as well.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzche shook off all Deity’s
commands
Postulated a strong “Superman”
“God is dead!” “It’s too sad!”
Then he died—raving mad
Cause he couldn’t "wipe the blood
off his hands".
Immanuel Kant
Beyond God and nature he stood,
So what was the source of all “good”
The “Thing in itself’”
Sat on too high a shelf
Attain it? Well Kant never could.
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis, though once a
contender
Became a strong, Christian
defender
"Surprised" through the years
"By his joys" and his fears
He discovered the truth in
surrender.
Bertrand Russell
He “pursued what was gentle and
wise”
A society where “envy dies”
He chased “beauty”, “nobility”
“Insight” and “gentility”
Did he reach it? Just ask his four
wives.
Blaise Pascal
Pascal wagered, “What if I choose
To have Faith, and abide by those views
If death proves me right
I gain Paradise
If it proves me wrong, what do I lose?
