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POLO MINTS: GATEWAY TO EXISTENTIAL ENLIGHTENMENT – PHILOSOPHY OF ORDINARY THINGS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2020

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Abstract

Thirty-eight million Polo Mints are consumed every day, apparently without a second thought. However, could this humble little minty fella actually be the gateway to true knowledge about life, the Universe and everything? We have drawn on the inspiration of Sartre, the Dalai Lama, Tao Ti Ching, Heidegger and Mahayana Buddhism to find five reasons why the Polo Mint's inner emptiness, with its sweet minty after taste, can lead to contemplations of the ultimate truth.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2020

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References

Notes

1 Messerli, F. H., ‘Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates’, The New England Journal of Medicine 367(16) (2012): 1562–4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Linthwaite, S., Fuller, and G. N., ‘Milk, Chocolate and Nobel Prizes’, Practical Neurology 13(1) (2013): 63CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Brigo, F. and Nardone, R.,, ‘Barbajada (Coffee, Milk and Chocolate): The Secret to the Nobel Prize’, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 19(3) (2014): 120Google ScholarPubMed.

2 Sartre, J. P., Basic Writings (London: Routledge, 2002), 125Google Scholar.

3 Ibid.

4 Shizuteru, U., Heisig, J. W. and Greiner, F., ‘Emptiness and Fullness: Śūnyatā in Mahāyāna Buddhism’, The Eastern Buddhist 15(1) (1982): 937Google Scholar.