Thank You! An Open Letter To Against Professional Philosophy.

Mr Nemo
Mr Nemo
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

by Mary Marcous

Dear W, X, Y, and Z,

This email is to express my gratitude, share a little about myself, and ask if I can be of help to you all in any way.

Okay, so I (finally) had the good fortune or fate of stumbling upon your website. The work you are doing and the resources you are making available are, to my mind, absolutely invaluable. My current obsession is the immensity of wisdom lodged in the mind of Simone Weil, who has effortlessly secured for herself the title of my favorite philosopher living and dead. Funny but true. I requested her lectures on philosophy from our FSU library and after some length of time what I finally received was a copy of G. E. Moore’s Lectures on Philosophy (so thank you for correcting their error). More travesty still. 10 years of academic training in philosophy under my belt and I had never even heard of her until a friend of mine who is a religion scholar gifted me one of her translated texts, Waiting for God. The rest is present.

My love of philosophy runs so deep as to render the absurdity of the present cultural climate of the discipline absolute. One way I can be of value on this front is to help spotlight, legitimize, and contribute my scholarly attention and time to APP. I currently do as much with the Philosophy of the City (POC) research group and Public Philosophy Network (PPN). If you think a measly graduate student can be of service in these ways, or any other ways, please let me know. I’m really good at being a fifth wheel: altogether inessential yet mysteriously still a thing. I don’t even need a mystery letter, since I would feel myself indebted to APP for the public association of my name with the APP project. As far as I am concerned, I have nothing to lose, and so much to gain, from such transparent collaboration. So yep, don’t be strangers, friends.

Best,

Mary Marcous, Florida State University

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APP Editors’ Postscript: Interested in the work of Simone Weil? Then please see–

Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 4: Simone Weil’s “Lectures on Philosophy.”

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AGAINST PROFESSIONAL PHILOSOPHY REDUX 31.

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Against Professional Philosophy is a sub-project of the online mega-project Philosophy Without Borders, which is home-based on Patreon here.

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Mr Nemo

Written by

Mr Nemo

Formerly Captain Nemo. A not-so-very-angry, but still unemployed, full-time philosopher-nobody.

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