In a 1901 parody edition, the journal Mind! offered £1,000 to any philosopher who could produce adequate documentary evidence that he:

1. Knows what he means.
2. Knows what anyone else means.
3. Knows what everyone means.
4. Knows what anything means.
5. Knows what everything else means.
6. Means what he says.
7. Means what he means.
8. Means what everyone else means.
9. Means what everyone else says that he means.
10. Can express what he means.
11. Knows what it signifies what he means.
12. Knows what it matters what he signifies.

“At first sight it might seem as though the Twelve Labours of Hercules would be in comparison with this a slighter achievement,” the editors wrote. “But in view of the extensive and peculiar knowledge of the Absolute’s Mind which is now possessed by so many philosophers, a large number of solutions may confidently be expected.”