Philosophy on Trial by Jeff Fraser (ritefly) - Play, Short, Allegorical Farce - With Lady Philosophy on trial for idleness and corrupting young minds, a series of luminaries in the history of Western thought, from Socrates to Einstein, are called as witnesses to testify.  Does philosophy have any relevance in a technologically advanced society?  The audience will sit in judgment. 31 pages - pdf, format 8)

Jeff,

This reads more like a project for your Modern Philosophy class?

I chuckled at your footnotes.

I think this could have been really interesting if the prosecution had questioned Descartes if he was a radical skeptic, criticized him for it like the Analytic philosophers have.

Who's Mr. Bass? Mr. Carp you mean?

I read only half of this. I'm finding it too unfocused really. The arguments could be much better and more interesting.

Actually a real turn of events would have been if you brought in Wittgenstein as a witness for the prosecution. Though, I suppose, that might kill your purpose here.

-J.S.

I'm assuming that J.S. is correct about this being for a class.

I think this could be really interesting, actually, if it were more focused on the prosecution's case. There's a sense that they've been thrown to the dogs, a bit, here -- even as the opening statements commence we feel we know who is right and who is wrong. Since (I think it's fair to say) we know whose side we're all on -- or at least, whose side we're all going to pretend to be on -- the majority of the drama here is going to come from Philosophy being tested as strongly as possible. This script will succeed if we really doubt the worth of Philosophy for a bit.

Otherwise…amusing! But, y'know, slight. As is.