Philosophers don't want to admit it, but Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place) is a pretty close approximation of many real philosophers.
Replies
I only have a phil minor, but the episode in the last season where we get flashbacks to Chidi growing up was uncomfortably relatable.
aug 28, 2025, 7:58 pm • 8 0 • view
Here's a reenactment of a discussion I had with my high school girlfriend about me also being attracted to my best friend: GF: You have to make a decision! This is torture! Me: I need more information. What if, like, I do a trial period with each of you, and... GF: *inconsolable wailing*
aug 28, 2025, 8:01 pm • 21 0 • view
They're all surprisingly jacked? 😁
sep 1, 2025, 7:53 pm • 11 0 • view
The only inaccuracy
sep 1, 2025, 9:56 pm • 7 0 • view
I really enjoyed the Good place.
aug 29, 2025, 9:19 am • 2 0 • view
Not one actual philosopher is as ripped as Chidi.
sep 2, 2025, 2:18 pm • 7 0 • view
these be fighting words😂
sep 2, 2025, 2:42 pm • 2 0 • view
i ... like my chances
sep 2, 2025, 3:07 pm • 4 0 • view
sep 2, 2025, 2:34 pm • 4 0 • view
Especially in the episode in which his best friend's body is sprayed all over him while driving a trolley.
sep 2, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
What DO we owe each other?
aug 28, 2025, 10:08 pm • 9 0 • view
The book, obviously. It's labeling its own contents, a joke that every human on Earth is supposed to buy a copy for every other human on Earth
aug 28, 2025, 10:18 pm • 2 0 • view
$7.94
aug 28, 2025, 10:17 pm • 13 0 • view
Perfect place for this gif.
aug 28, 2025, 10:34 pm • 6 0 • view
sep 2, 2025, 6:48 pm • 1 0 • view
"Philosophers don't want to admit it" is the new "doctors hate her"
sep 2, 2025, 1:54 pm • 2 0 • view
A phil prof friend did like the show, and appreciated that it actually credited Philippa Foot with creating the Trolley Problem hypothetical, which intro phil instructors almost never do.
sep 2, 2025, 2:35 pm • 2 0 • view
Umm Chidi gives extremely unrealistic expectations about what philosophers’ bodies look like.
aug 28, 2025, 8:13 pm • 112 1 • view
😅
sep 2, 2025, 2:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Fair
aug 28, 2025, 10:16 pm • 11 0 • view
I liked the show a lot. And I think most male philosophers would do anything to be as ripped as Chidi.
sep 1, 2025, 6:44 pm • 2 0 • view
How Chidi does philosophy — by jumping on one theory after another in earnest — is not how philosophers do philosophy. But the representation of various philosophical views was shockingly accurate, and that was amazing and wonderful. Also, he’s just so much hotter than any APA attendee.
sep 2, 2025, 2:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Idk, I've definitely seen philosophers do that. Especially over beer
sep 2, 2025, 2:45 pm • 0 0 • view
There should be a philosopher who is also a cool biker dude
aug 29, 2025, 1:03 am • 2 0 • view
I'm a high school teacher but my mother was in elementary school teacher in a low-income inner city school and she says that Abbott elementary is incredibly accurate.
sep 3, 2025, 12:05 am • 1 0 • view
Kevin, Chidi literally says there’s no solution to the trolley problem. Have you met a single philosopher who thinks there’s no solution to the trolley problem?
aug 28, 2025, 8:11 pm • 21 1 • view
Except he does say in the variant involving a doctor that he as a doctor took a oath to do no harm and thus can not harm others to save a life
sep 1, 2025, 7:29 pm • 1 0 • view
I think that!
aug 28, 2025, 9:46 pm • 33 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 8:40 pm • 2 0 • view
*raises hand*
sep 1, 2025, 6:39 pm • 32 0 • view
There's no *right* solution to the trolley problem but there are a few wrong ones. I head this "I couldn't pull the lever because I wouldn't know who deserved to die..." I'm sorry, does ANYONE deserve to die? Well, he didn't get that internship.
sep 2, 2025, 2:11 pm • 1 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 9:04 pm • 1 0 • view
The solution to the trolley problem is to give *everyone* a trolley.
sep 1, 2025, 6:53 pm • 24 2 • view
A trolley on every track
sep 2, 2025, 2:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Socrates is a philosopher. All philosophers are trolleys. Therefore...
sep 2, 2025, 1:58 pm • 1 0 • view
"Communism is electrification plus trolleys" - V.I.Lenin, "What Is To Be Done?"
sep 2, 2025, 3:49 pm • 2 1 • view
If the trolley problem is "Is it ethically permissible to pull the lever in the original Spur case", do you still think that?
sep 2, 2025, 2:15 pm • 0 0 • view
The problem is almost always under-specified for a utilitarian to answer. As a result to demand that it has a single solution without further detail is to prejudice the answer
sep 2, 2025, 2:44 pm • 0 0 • view
You mean like, “the trolley problem” doesn’t specify whether the single person on the spur is your child or not?
sep 2, 2025, 3:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I just mean that it doesn't tell you any of the enormous host of consequences that would be necessary for a utilitarian calculus. What do I expect each of those people will do with their lives? What will happen to me after I do or do not push the person? Will my pushing change social norms? Etc.
sep 2, 2025, 4:28 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ll believe that when I see it!
aug 28, 2025, 9:47 pm • 1 0 • view
So you have these two tracks.. On one track is the trolley problem, on the other track is a question about what the nothing does....
aug 28, 2025, 9:49 pm • 16 0 • view
aug 28, 2025, 9:51 pm • 8 1 • view
So, this doesn't quite answer the question. Rather professionals hate it *because* it gets it right.
aug 28, 2025, 7:47 pm • 56 1 • view
But we love looking jacked!
aug 28, 2025, 8:18 pm • 10 0 • view
What philosophers have you met who disliked Good Place because of Chidi? Almost every one I've talked to about the show loved it. The thing that most folks I know complain about is the size of Chidi's office as a grad student.
aug 28, 2025, 8:18 pm • 60 0 • view
"I've met a philosopher who hated x" is true for all x
aug 28, 2025, 10:17 pm • 49 2 • view
But seriously, I thought the majority opinion was anti The Good Place. Is that not true?
aug 28, 2025, 10:18 pm • 8 0 • view
I am a professional philosopher and The Good Place is my favorite tv show ever. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go put the Peeps in the chili pot (and add some M&Ms)
sep 2, 2025, 4:58 pm • 2 0 • view
I’ve only talked to profs who loved it.
sep 2, 2025, 1:52 pm • 1 0 • view
most of the philosophers I've spoken to about it have loved it, and the ones who didn't like it were grumpy cynical types who hate everything anyway
aug 28, 2025, 10:33 pm • 38 0 • view
I also loved it (albeit it was a love that slightly diminished over the last two seasons), and when it was on I lived with two other philosophers who also loved it
aug 28, 2025, 11:25 pm • 10 0 • view
The philosopher in my life loved it, but thought it was unrealistic that Chidi's views were so unformed at his assistant-professor stage of life.
sep 2, 2025, 3:48 pm • 0 0 • view
😅 I for one am not grumpy or cynical. As evidence, I present to the jury the fact that I'm currently doing a Moone Boy rewatch!
aug 28, 2025, 10:37 pm • 4 0 • view
Seconding Hane’s assessment. This is also my experience.
sep 1, 2025, 7:16 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, that’s my experience too.
sep 2, 2025, 2:07 pm • 5 0 • view
Every philosopher I have talked to about it loves it. Without exception.
aug 28, 2025, 10:20 pm • 7 0 • view
I guess I'm an exception then 😅 I just didn't personally find it that funny overall though, nothing in particular to do with Chidi's character.
aug 28, 2025, 10:30 pm • 2 0 • view
Also my experience - I haven't encountered any haters (and I was a fan myself)
aug 28, 2025, 10:24 pm • 3 0 • view
Huh. I thought I was in the minority
aug 28, 2025, 10:21 pm • 2 0 • view
For example
aug 28, 2025, 10:24 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm part of an unnaturally cool and chill dept at SUNY Albany, so take my anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt; but there's universal love from what I've come across in my long grad career. And also, as a comedy expert, it's a Mike fucking Schur show. He's a legend.
aug 28, 2025, 10:48 pm • 4 0 • view
if the claim is "professionals hate it because it gets it right" you cannot cite me as your evidence
sep 1, 2025, 4:29 pm • 2 0 • view
Ha! No, I was just citing you as evidence that philosophers don't like the good place
sep 1, 2025, 4:31 pm • 1 0 • view
o7 o7
sep 1, 2025, 5:42 pm • 1 0 • view
Echoing a wise man, ""I've met a philosopher who hated x" is true for all x". The overwhelming majority of philosophers I've talked to about Good Place have liked it a lot. I can only think of two who said they didn't.
aug 28, 2025, 11:52 pm • 4 0 • view
The Good Place is incredible.
aug 28, 2025, 10:32 pm • 4 0 • view
In case anyone ever contests this statement: I, a philosopher, hate x for all x. Cheers !
sep 1, 2025, 7:10 pm • 2 0 • view
true, I'm too anxious and can't take decisions, but I look fabulous at least
aug 29, 2025, 9:20 am • 4 0 • view
Would that the West Wing had depicted reality.
aug 28, 2025, 11:32 pm • 3 0 • view
My experience has been philosophers frequently and loudly admitting this
aug 29, 2025, 10:38 am • 20 0 • view
If Chidi is a realistic portrait of philosophy Im glad I went to a weird school where they just chucked copies of Anzaldua and Zhuangzi at my head.
sep 1, 2025, 7:29 pm • 4 0 • view
Sounds dangerous
sep 1, 2025, 7:30 pm • 1 0 • view
It was! I ended up with a biochem degree somehow and there were no survivors
sep 1, 2025, 7:31 pm • 4 0 • view