2012-12-05
Explanation
This comic features a philosopher giving a lecture that begins by quoting Albert Camus: "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy." The philosopher then proposes an unexpected "simple solution" to this existential problem: evolution. The argument is that individuals who are not overcome by existential despair will be more likely to have offspring, so over time there will be fewer and fewer existentialists. Eventually, the idea that life'''s meaning is a conundrum will no longer have lodging in the human psyche.
The philosopher concludes that the "problem of suicide" is therefore more like the "nuisance of suicide" -- an itch that time and natural selection will scratch for our descendants. So in the broad sense of "human," it cannot be considered part of "the human condition." This is a darkly humorous misapplication of evolutionary theory to philosophy, treating a profound question of meaning as a mere selection pressure.
The punchline undercuts the entire argument: someone points out that "some women are attracted to depressed philosophical types," meaning that existential angst could actually be sexually selected for rather than against. The philosopher glumly responds, "Then we are forever doomed," while a woman in the audience thinks "So... hot!" The votey shows someone objecting, "That'''s not how evolution works," to which the philosopher replies, "Only according to science" -- a final joke about philosophy'''s often contentious relationship with empirical science.