2011-02-07
Explanation
This comic retells the ancient "Paradox of the Court," a famous logical paradox from ancient Greece involving the sophist Protagoras and his student Euathlus. Protagoras agreed to teach Euathlus rhetoric and law on the condition that Euathlus would pay his tuition fee only after winning his first court case. When Euathlus never bothered to take any cases, Protagoras sued him for the fee.
The paradox arises because both sides construct seemingly airtight arguments. Protagoras reasons: "If I win the lawsuit, the court orders you to pay; if I lose, then you've won your first case and must pay per our deal." Euathlus counters with the mirror image: "If I win, the court says I don't pay; if I lose, I still haven't won my first case, so our deal says I don't pay." The comic then shows the arguments spiraling further, with Protagoras noting he could sue a second time with the new information, leading to an infinite regress.
The punchline ties this obsession with clever argumentation to Athens' downfall in the Peloponnesian War. While a Spartan soldier threatens concrete violence -- killing children and taking wives -- the Athenian is still trying to deconstruct the philosophical implications of being killed, asking whether the spear, society, or nature herself is truly responsible. The joke is that the Greeks' love of abstract reasoning and rhetorical cleverness, while intellectually beautiful, was hilariously impractical when faced with real-world threats.