According to Robert Philmus, in Gulliver's Travels, Swifts authorial voice is rarely detectable and instead provides the reader with Gulliver to narrate. This enables Swift to show the reader Gulliver's ironic view of humans after his encounter with the Houyhnhnms'. Gulliver acts as a gullible character quickly conforming to other's beliefs.
             Robert Philmus points out many problems behind Gulliver's quickly changed views towards humans and truth after his stay in Houyhnhnmland. Gulliver believes that everything should be taken literally and that things only can exist if they have a name. For example, in the Houyhnhnm society they have no word for "lie". In order for Gulliver to explain what a lie was he used the phrase "the thing which was not". Since they have no word for it, lying simply does not exist. Robert Philmus stresses that Gulliver is a weak minded character lacking a strong educational background. Philmus quotes Gulliver making truthful claims by citing a passage from the Aeneid, where he quotes Augustan Sinon's words used to deceive Trojans about a horse. Sinon's name is closely associated with deception and lies and proves to be a poor example for Gulliver to use. The Houyhnhnms quickly convince Gulliver's uneducated mind of their greatness and superiority over Yahoos. Houyhnhnms lived in a perfect world of reason and truth, and Yahoos were nothing but animals.
             Philmus makes a clear effort to show the absurdity in being completely truthful and reasonable. His first example is in Gulliver's description of humans. Due to the language barrier, Gulliver calls humans Yahoos when he describes them. The Houyhnhnms have no word for a human since they don't believe that such a creature exists. Thus in Gulliver's explanation the Houyhnhnms picture humans as being the same as Yahoos. A false impression is being made due to the language...