Existential Comics

Zera Yacob was a 17th century philosopher, from Ethiopia. Like the comic says he was exiled for refusing to convert to Catholicism, and he spent the time developing a rationalist philosophy which rejected dogmas passed down through the generations, instead believing that human reason should be seen as the foundation of knowledge. While he didn't think religions were wrong, per se, he thought the particular specific dogmas that each faith were fighting over were created by man, in part because many of them seemed irrational and conflicting, so they could not have come from God. Unfortunately when he returned from exile, the new emperor wasn't much more interested in this philosophy than the last, he just wanted to purge the Catholics, like the last guy wanted to purge the Orthodox religion. Just like pretty much everywhere else in the world, the population was the same, preferring their dogmas. At least they didn't kill him though, so that's a plus.

One problem with going back into Plato's cave to enlighten the people is that people fundamentally like being stupid idiots.

"Trotsky, barging in to flip the table over again: \"permanent revolution!\""

"But how do you justify your idea that we all need to follow the man with the stick?" "I'll give you a one guess..."

Wait a minute, I don't care that at all, because the verification principle isn't making a metaphysical claim it is making a suggestion about how we should talk about things.

Socrates love is when you love asking questions more than you love not drinking hemlock.

This is based on Simone de Beauvoir's novel All Men Are Mortal, about an Italian prince who takes an immortality elixir in the 13th century, and uses his immortality to try to create a completely rational, utopian world for several centuries before more or less giving up. He tells his life story to a French Actress that he falls in love with in the present day, in an attempt to once again inject some kind of meaning into his life. It's a bit of an under represented novel of the ones written by Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus, and really should be the one teenagers read instead of The Stranger, in my opinion. It's a lot more straightforward in what it means, and it has cooler stuff like conquering Florence and burning monks at the stake, which I certainly would have enjoyed reading more as a teenager than a bunch of talking about how hot a courtroom is.

As an aside, of all the philosophy quotes I've heard, I always thought Simone de Beauvoir's "all men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation" would be the most badass one to say just before you shoot someone.