The above is a picture of Agnes Callard, who teaches philosophy at the University of Chicago. I feel fine about posting her picture because she posted it herself on Twitter, where I follow her. She tweeted, with the photo, the philosopher's eternal question, "How pleased is one allowed to be with one's own outfit?" I commented, "Don't like the sox." To which she replied, "Very good eye you are correct!" Probably my first interaction with a professional philosopher since I was a teenager and earned a workman's B in "Introduction to Philosophy." I remember that in around 1977 that older professional philosopher wrote, at the bottom of one of my papers, "I am not sure that you have grasped the crux of Kant's argument."
Me neither!
Anyway, there is a kind of thing, "Twitter Philosophy," on which I spy happily. Today, someone wrote:
Some people want to rank philosophy departments. Some people want to rank philosophers. Some people want to rank philosophy books. Some people want to rank philosophy papers. Me? I want to rank philosophy paragraphs, nay, philosophy sentences. Best philosophy sentence ever?
This came across my feed because Agnes--she looks to be under 40, which suggests that someone after around 1980 named their baby "Agnes," just as my great grandparents did in 1908, the last instance, I had thought--replied. Her contribution:
Desire is the capacity to be, by means of a representation, the cause of the object of that representation. --Kant
Yes, that is for sure the top of the line, and may also shed light on my failure to grasp the crux of the argument. Someone else, without naming the philosopher, contributed another sentence that is likewise indisputable, though in an arguably more subjective fashion:
What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.
On the 201st anniversary of Karl Marx's birth, one is tempted to ask after the meaning here of "belongs," but, really, people who go to parties, as well as the people who throw them, must probably understand. I mean no disrespect to the Moor, so-called by his children on account of his fierce physiognomy, which may have contributed something to his low reputation here in America where we nevertheless pay him homage whenever we say, "Follow the money!" or "It's the economy, stupid!"
I am honored to be on your blog-- I am 43 and from Hungary, where Agnes is a common name!
Posted by: Agnes Callard | May 20, 2019 at 09:17 AM