Z. erwähnt einen Marx-Brothers Film, in dem Groucho sagt: "Whom do you
believe, my eyes or my words". Vielleicht finden wir den?
In the history of philosophy, there are three great anecdotic examples of
»believe my words, not your eyes«: Diogenes the Cynic who refuted the
Eleatic thesis that there is no movements by simply taking a walk, and then, as
Hegel emphasizes, beated up his pupil who applauded the Master, i.e. who
believed his eyes more than the words of argumentation (Diogenes' point was
that such a direct reference to experience, to »what your eyes tell
you,« does not count in philosophy - the task of philosophy is to
demonstrate, by means of argumentation, the truth or untruth of what we see);
the Medieval story of scolastics monks who discussed how many teeth has a
donkey, and were then shocked at a proposal of a younger member of their group,
that they should simply go to a stall outside their house and check it;
finally, the story of Hegel insisting that there are only eight planets around
the Sun even after the discovery of the ninth... Today, with the new
digitalized technologies enabling perfectly faked documentary images, not to
mention Virtual Reality, the motto »believe my words (argumentation), not
the fascination of your eyes!« is more actual than ever.