Absurdity
Absurdity
Every now and then I am struck by the sheer absurdity of my current situation. I live approximately a mile from the University of Miami, where I used to be a philosophy professor. I drive by there frequently. For twelve years I have had no contact with the people in the philosophy department. I am banned from campus under threat of forcible removal. Why, I don’t know. People who used to be my friends and colleagues shun me like the plague. Why, I don’t know. With the exception of Ed Erwin (now deceased) everyone keeps their distance. Meanwhile I churn out philosophy at least as good as anything I did before. My professional contacts (and friends) include Thomas Nagel, Noam Chomsky, Rebecca Goldstein, Richard Dawkins, and Steven Pinker—not a shabby list. But no one from my old department. I once inquired if my ex-colleagues would be okay with my attending colloquia and was rebuffed. Why, I don’t know. All is silence. I am reminded of Cincinnatus C. in Nabokov’s dark comedy Invitation to a Beheading, imprisoned for a nameless crime and condemned to death. The nearest he comes to understanding the nature of his crime is the phrase “gnostical turpitude”; for this he is betrayed by everyone and duly beheaded. A similar fate befalls Josef K. in Kafka’s The Trial. It’s the not knowing that constitutes the worst punishment. My situation is not quite so serious, but it is equally hilarious. We should all get together and have a good laugh about it.
I think you are a fine philosopher with both analytic acuity and phenomenological sensitivity. I am very sorry all this has happened to you. I dug out my copy of “Mindsight” and look forward to returning to it…. ‘I especially miss your reviews in the NYRB….
Faulkner observed that the feeling of the absurd carried with it a sense of superiority, which makes me approach absurd emotion with a touch of suspicion. But then again, when all else fails, it’s best to laugh at the absurdity of life…
Best to you!
I get no pleasure from the moral inferiority of others, or their stupidity. It is amazing to me that the NYRB would act as it has. But I am glad you find value in my writing and thinking.
Let’s not forget that this is not some kind of unfortunate accident that befell me, like cancer. It is the result of concerted intentional actions on the part of identifiable individuals, going on till this day. That is, my isolation from the local academic community is the direct result of conscious decisions on the part of university administrators and members of the philosophy department. My efforts to integrate have not been met with acceptance, still less enthusiasm. It’s like having Kant or Wittgenstein down the road but refusing to have anything to do with him. It is a form of imprisonment.
I hope that I am not insulting anyone, but most of your commenters, like me, seem not to be professional philosophers. Do you think that your professional colleagues are boycotting the blog?
My blog statistics record that American visitors are triple the next country, the UK. Yet there are virtually no comments from them, or communications with me. That certainly suggests a kind of boycott: read but don’t do so publicly.
In the nature of the case I have no direct evidence of boycott, but I’m sure it’s going on. It’s a mark of virtue for many people.