For all those who may enjoy it:


There were once three men, so observant and experienced in life that they were known as The Three Perceptives. One day during their travels they encountered a camel man, who said:

‘Have you seen my camel? I have lost it.’
‘Was it blind in one eye?’ asked the first Perceptive.
‘Yes,’ said the camel driver.
‘Has it one tooth missing in front?’ Asked the second Perceptive.
‘Yes, yes,’ said the camel driver.
'Is it lame in one foot?' asked the third Perceptive.
'Yes, yes, yes,' said the cameldriver.

The three Perceptives then told the man to go back along the way they had come, and that he might hope to find it. Thinking that they had seen it, the man hurried on his way.
But the man did not find his camel, and he hasted to catch up with the Perceptives, hoping that they would tell him what to do.
He found them that evening, at a resting-place.

‘Has your camel honey on one side and a load of corn on the other?’ asked the first Perceptive.
‘Yes,’ said the man.
‘Is there a pregnant woman mounted upon it?’ asked the second Perceptive.
‘Yes, yes,’ said the man.
‘We do not know where it is,’ said the third Perceptive.

The camel driver was now convinced that the Perceptives had stolen his camel, passenger and all, and he took them to the judge, accusing them of the theft.
The Judge thought that he had made out a case, and detailed the three men in custody on suspicion of theft.
A little later, the man found his camel wandering in some fields, and returning to the court, arranged for the Perceptives to be released. The judge, who had not given the men a chance to explain themselves before, asked how it was they knew so much about the camel, since they had apparently not seen it.

‘We saw the footprints of a camel on the road,’ said the first Perceptive.
‘One of the tracks was faint: it must have been lame,’ said the second Perceptive.
‘It has stripped the bushes at only one side of the road, so it must have been blind in one eye,’ said the third Perceptive.

‘The leaves were shredded, which indicated the loss of a tooth,’ continued the first Perceptive.
‘Bees and ants, on different sides of the road, were swarming over something deposited; we saw that this was honey and corn,’ said the second Perceptive.
‘We found long human hair where someone has stopped and dismounted, it was a woman’s,’ said the third Perceptive.
‘Where the person has sat down there were palm-prints, we thought from the use of the hands that the women was probably pregnant and had to stand up that way,’ said the first Perceptive.

‘Why did you not apply for your side of the case to be heard so that you could explain yourselves?’ asked the judge.

‘Because we reckoned that the cameldriver would continue looking for his camel and might find it soon,’ said the first Perceptive.
‘He would feel generous in releasing us through his discovery,’ said the second Perceptive.
‘The curiosity of the Judge would prompt an enquiry,’ said the third Perceptive.

‘Discovering the truth by his own enquiries would be better for all than for us to claim that we had been impatiently handled,’ said the first Perceptive.
‘It is our experience that it is generally better for people to arrive at truth through what they take to be their own volition,’ said the second Perceptive.
‘It is time for us to move on, for there is work to be done,’ said the third Perceptive.

And the men went on their way. They are still to be found on the highways of the earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nice, But I'd keep them in a bit longer for being so smug!! But the philosophical shaggy camel's payload is a good one, like obtusely leading the horse to water, so it can drink...or not.

Here's a "A Question of Logic" a scene From "The Enigma of Kaspar Hausar"...he's a guy that escapes/ or is realeased from a mysterious silent incarceration that he's been subjeted all his life - to emerge in a village; where he is eventually the subject of curiosity in turn by the freaskshow audeinces, puzzled pedagogues, religious zealots, and the superior philosophers of the time


[url] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9uqPeIYMik&feature=related [/url]
_________________
"The tighter you grasp Lord Vader, the more it will slip through your fingers."

Handsel haha...A philosophical Wallender: it's like many a joke, you have the punchline or what you want to say, then work backwards to make it (the revalation) happen. Know your place, you are not a Perceptive - there can only be three!! (somewhere in a Wild Bean Cafe)


...watch mine btw, it's 'solved' by the protagonist but an interesting proposition. Dare I mention Godel on these boards??? hmmmm




I was requested to design that btw, and have in someway contrived the opportunity to display it
_________________
"The tighter you grasp Lord Vader, the more it will slip through your fingers."

Weren't you using a Bertrand Russell signature not so long ago? - a quote that perhaps did aid me getting a young ladies phone number. "Who said that" she said. "eeeer, I think was...Russel Br...Bertrand Russell!" (internaly mumbling....yeah, it's somebody's signature off flirtbox...admit it! No, you gonna take the praise)

But that anti-bookywook of his does sound a possible waste of time (crikey ), and certainly not that enjoyable. We must assume he enjoyed writing it.

Aye, Godel is 'like' Bertrand Russell insofar as Russell ventured into logic, and mathematical philosophy.

actually he just needs a top hat, a Harold Lloyd-ish optical mishap
...and obviously get his brain out. But that photo does disguise his epic jaundice
_________________
"The tighter you grasp Lord Vader, the more it will slip through your fingers."

aye after all that, his epitaph in Princeton reads...




YO GODEL BELOW!
DIED AGE 71
JANUARY 14, 1978

I TRIED, BUT... EEERR VAAT CAN YOU DO EH!!


ANYONE...ANYONE, THROW ME A BONE! I...I STILL AVE ME VIT, YES? DESPITE MY NUMEROUS SETBACKS


(I'M ZERTAIN THIS WILL CATCH ON...)
http://www.logic.univie.ac.at/Contact.html

_________________
"The tighter you grasp Lord Vader, the more it will slip through your fingers."

I do believe this thread has been defalcated of its original value...!

I can't decide if the three Perceptives would annoy me if I were the Camel driver because I kind of like what they've done.