The Scholar's Dilemma
A poem version of Russell's paradox (like the barber who shaves exactly those who don't shave themselves): a scholar resolves to love precisely those who don't love themselves, then wonders whether that includes him.
Transcript
[Title] "The Scholar's Dilemma"
"The scholar reads this wisdom on a high and dusty shelf: / 'You cannot love another / till you learn to love yourself.' / He turns it over in his mind, / and then his thinking delves: / 'I choose to love precisely those / who do not love themselves.' / Then, the learnéd scholar frowns. / His face turns gray and grim: / his love for those who cannot love— / does it encompass him?" [A scholar frowns at a book on a desk]
Use this cartoon
Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.
Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2018-02-12-the-scholar-s-dilemma/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)