2013-08-15
Explanation
In this comic, one person tells another "I don'''t believe in love. It'''s just a bunch of chemical reactions." This is a common reductionist argument sometimes made by people who want to sound scientifically sophisticated -- the idea that because emotions like love can be described in terms of neurotransmitters, hormones, and brain chemistry, they are somehow less real or meaningful.
The second person responds by punching the first person and then declaring "I don'''t believe in pain. It'''s just a chemical reaction." The first person, now on the ground and clearly in pain, cries out "WHYYY?!" This perfectly exposes the hypocrisy of the original argument: if love can be dismissed as "just" chemistry, then so can pain, suffering, or any other human experience. The fact that the first person clearly does experience real pain from the punch undermines their dismissal of love on the same grounds.
The joke works as a sharp philosophical rebuttal to naive reductionism. Just because something can be explained at a chemical or physical level does not mean it is "just" that explanation. Pain is undeniably real to the person experiencing it, and so is love. The votey panel shows the punched person begging "Call a doctor! Please!" -- still very much believing in the reality of his physical sensations despite his earlier philosophical posturing.