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*Hi,* *Its 09:40 am here in KL, Malaysia! This wonderful meaningful story cheered me up! I love it!* *Jubair* ** On 3/8/07, Tom Milner-Gulland <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > The list owner of Philos-L posted this amusing story to Chora, written by > Jonathan Sacks: > > > "I just love the story of the philosophy professor who was invited to give > a > lecture on epistemology to the University of Beijing. He did so and not > being about to speak Mandarin was provided with a Chinese interpreter. He > began his lecture and after a sentence paused to let the interpreter > translate into Chinese but the interpreter said: No, carry on - I'll tell > you when to stop. After 15 minutes and the interpreter said 'stop' and > delivered five words to the audience in Chinese - I will not even attempt > to > say what they were - and said 'carry on'. The same thing happened after 30 > minutes - five more words, 45 minutes - another five words and at the end > of > the lecture - an hour - four words and the audience duly stood up and > filed > out. The English philosophy professor went to the interpreter and said: > I'm > absolutely astounded. I have given an extremely complicated lecture about > epistemology. How were you able to summarise it in so few words? And the > interpreter said: Easy - after 15 minutes I said 'so far he hasn't said > anything new'; after half an hour 'I said he still hasn't said anything > new'; after 45 minutes I said 'I don't think he's going to say anything > new' > and after an hour I said 'I was right - he didn't'. " > > http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10556.asp > > The rest of the paper, on harmonsing disparate communities, might also be > of > interest to a friend of wisdom. > > and there's this by Rowan Williams, on atheism: > > at http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page5480.asp > > Tom >