Philosophical Lexicon

Thank you Dan Dennett and fellows for THIS.

Here my absolute favourites:

• heidegger, n. A ponderous device for boring thick layers of substance. “It’s buried so deep, we’ll have to use a heidegger.” Also useful for burying one’s own past.

• husserl, v. To surround a single phenomenon with darkness to create the illusion of seeing it more clearly afterwards; if it fails, one probably has to use a Heidegger (q.v.)

• immanuel, n. (from im-, not, +manual, guide or rulebook) A set of instructions that kant (q.v.) be done

• kripkography, n. The opposite of cryptography: the art of translating a meaningless message (about e.g. de re necessity) into expressions that an uninitiated observer would take to be straightforwardly meaningful (e.g., “Look, it’s not hard. All he’s saying is that since the term is a rigid designator, it refers to the same thing in all possible worlds.”). “He used to claim he just couldn’t understand essentialism, but now, thanks to kripkography, he just sits there nodding and smiling.”

• nozick, n. (from nostrum + physick) Political snake oil, a patent medecine, esp. a carthartic or purgative. “Waste not logick, not yet strong physick, on the Leviathan; serve it nozick, and stand back.” – Hobbes