Tags
Cat Lady, Cats, Companion Species, Donna Haraway, Doris Lessing, J.M. Coetzee, Jane Campbell, Literature and Philosophy, Timothy Morton
In the third of my three posts about the figure of the cat lady, I examine the ways in which the old woman in Jane Campbell’s story ‘Cat Brushing’ is attuned to the complexities of the cat’s world, and how the inter-species companionship between the old woman and the cat represents a sophisticated form of ecological awareness.
Old Women and Cats: the Gendering of Solidarity
15 Friday Dec 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
Cat Lady, Cats, Companion Species, Dogs, Doris Lessing, J.M. Coetzee, Jane Campbell, Literature and Philosophy, Timothy Morton
This is the second in a series of three posts in which I examine the figure of the cat lady. In this post, I read J.M. Coetzee’s ‘The Old Woman and the Cats’ and examine the gendering of solidarity between species in inter-species companionship, and how the rejection of the masculine becomes the space and mode of solidarity with non-humans.
Old Women and Cats: Exclusion as a Space for Companionship
08 Friday Dec 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
Cat Lady, Cats, Companion Species, Donna Haraway, Doris Lessing, Giorgio Agamben, J.M. Coetzee, Jane Campbell, Literature and Philosophy, Timothy Morton
What does it mean to own a cat? This is the first in a series three posts in which I examine the figure of the cat lady and examine the forms of inter-species companionship that it represents, with particular emphasis of one of three short stories. In this post, I read Doris Lessing’s story ‘And Old Woman and Her Cat’ and examine how the inter-species companionship at the site of marginalisation subverts the anthropocentric regime of biopower in Western society.
Domesticating Dogs and the Ethics of Companionship
03 Friday Nov 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
Anna E. Charlton, Companion Species, Dogs, Donna Haraway, Gary L. Francione, Pets, Sarah Marshall-Pescini
Some reflections on the ethics of domesticating and caring for dogs.
The Language Hourglass: Language and the Representation of Time
11 Friday Aug 2017
Posted in Philosophy
How language affects our perception of time: a recent study shows bilingual people conceptualise time differently. These are some reflections on the matter with my own experience speaking multiple languages.
When is a Kilogram Not Equal to One Kilogram?
04 Friday Aug 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
A Prioricity, Analytic Philosophy, International Committee for Weights and Measures, International Prototype of the Kilogram, Kilogram, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Naming and Necessity, Necessity, Saul Kripke, Two-Dimensional Semantics
What are the philosophical questions raised by the re-definition of the SI unit kilogram? The proposed change in the definition of the kilogram and the retiring of the metre prototype is reminiscent of an argument made by Saul Kripke about the difference between necessity and a a prioricity.
The Marvin Problem: or Why Intelligent Robots will be Depressed
20 Thursday Jul 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
Artificial Intelligence, Jerry Goodenough, Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine, Louis Althusser, Marvin the Paranoid Android, Steve the Security Robot, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
There was a rather amusing story that made ripples across social media of a robot that allegedly ‘drowned itself’. Obviously, the comparisons to Marvin the Paranoid Android were uncanny. So why did Steve the K5 Security Robot kill himself? Why is Marvin the Paranoid Android always depressed?
The Ethics of Smell: Corporeal Porosity and the Embodiment of Care
02 Sunday Jul 2017
Posted in Philosophy
Tags
Donna Haraway, Embodiment, Environmental Humanities, Gail Weiss, Improbable Research, Intercorporeality, Phenomenology, Smell
How can thinking of bodies through smell reveal the complexities of the embodied relations between them? This is a meditation on how we interact with other bodies through their smell, and how smell reveals their inner workings in ways that sight or sound do not.
Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey: Doctor Who and the Topology of Time
25 Sunday Jun 2017
Posted in Philosophy
General relativity and gravitational time dilation in the Doctor Who episode ‘World Enough and Time’. Note: This post contains spoilers for the recent episode of Doctor Who, ‘World Enough and Time’. (Although the events of the episode have been trailed in such detail that everything is obvious and predictable, and there are no surprises left in the episode.)