1. Someone who philosterbates (gets off on hearing himself talk, usually about philosophical issues).
2. One who attempts to impress others with seemingly deep (but in truth vacuous) discourse about such matters as ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, eudaimonia, and hermeneutics. Such persons may astound some of their audience, but others may see them as pretentious, narcissistic, and self-delusional.
The philosterbater is usually a callow young man who is greatly impressed by such unanswerable questions as:
· What is existence?
· Why does anything exist rather than nothing?
· What are the limits of human knowledge? Is knowledge even possible?
· Why is there air?
· Is there any advantage to living in the universe?
Philosterbaters tend to attract persons of their ilk and to drive away others; accordingly, their audiences tend to be collections of like-minded philosterbaters who sit around in a virtual circle and philosterbate each other to climax.
2. One who attempts to impress others with seemingly deep (but in truth vacuous) discourse about such matters as ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, eudaimonia, and hermeneutics. Such persons may astound some of their audience, but others may see them as pretentious, narcissistic, and self-delusional.
The philosterbater is usually a callow young man who is greatly impressed by such unanswerable questions as:
· What is existence?
· Why does anything exist rather than nothing?
· What are the limits of human knowledge? Is knowledge even possible?
· Why is there air?
· Is there any advantage to living in the universe?
Philosterbaters tend to attract persons of their ilk and to drive away others; accordingly, their audiences tend to be collections of like-minded philosterbaters who sit around in a virtual circle and philosterbate each other to climax.
Brian is such a philosterbater! I'll bet he gets off three or four times a day on that stuff, but what he doesn't know is that everyone else is laughing behind his back.
by Stuart Showalter May 12, 2008