Many of us have made a conscientious decision at some point in our lives to widen our horizons and deepen our understanding of the world we inhabit; if you have, you might well have crossed paths with the shallow philosopher archetype.
Whether you are trapped in a conversation at a braai, cornered in the kitchen while making tea at work or are socially inclined to make polite conversation with an acquaintance, the navel-gazing types will undoubtedly attempt to stun you with their profound insights, gleaned from the various pop science books, podcasts and film media they have most-recently consumed.
We all know the type, as they might, at some point, have asked the question that has piqued a thousand first-year philosophy students interest in the subject: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Existential dread and the Eskom machine
So cliche has the phrase become that it has somewhat receded from philosophical debates for more striking thought experiments, such as the much more applicable morality of the trolley problem, the attributions of the Ship of Theseus or the economic behaviour of the prisoners dilemma.
