PhilosophTay

It’s February 2015 and Kanye’s back on the radar after a long hiatus. Gone is the abrasive, industrial sound of Yeezus. Instead he’s making pretty little ditties with the help of Paul McCartney: first Only One and then FourFive Seconds with Rihanna. Album-hype is building. No hints on the name yet but we’ve been told it’s “80% done” and that it’s gonna be “cookout music.” Naturally, we’re expecting more of the same from his BRITs performance. It’ll push the boundaries – sure – but it’ll be gentle, wholesome even. These people were listening to a weepy Sam Smith ballad before this! They were watching Ed Sheeran hum and slap his guitar! These poor people are sitting  cabaret-style!  And in comes Kanye with that distorted bass and those flamethrowers. Even Taylor Swift is left wide-eyed and slack-jawed. ************************* Far from being a modern aberration, getting money has been a concern since time immemorial. Even philosophers are not imm

Let me describe to you my dream piece of philosophy. It’s not too long. Ideally fewer than three pages, though up to five is okay as long as every word is necessary. The title is something I read quickly, then read again more slowly. It makes me say ‘What’s all this about then?’ under my breath. The piece itself is technical but not tedious. The implications are wide but the focus is tight. There’s a nice juicy example. It’s got a sense of danger to it and an element of suspense. It reads almost like a detective story. By the time it’s over the point of the example is obvious, but the implications are spelt out anyway. This is done with a kind of quiet swagger, detectable only through a few italicised words. And it’s a slam dunk . There are no possible ifs and no possible buts, no assumptions undefended or questions unanswered. It’s not so much a line in the sand as a crack in the earth. You can’t ignore it or undermine it. Your only choice, should you encoun