on tough audience questions

Consider this a “trivia” post; I just thought these were fun anecdotes. Incidentally, I was not present for any of these incidents. But they aren’t from “a friend of a friend.” They’re directly from people I know who claim to have seen them happen.

Weirdest audience question

Question posed to Jürgen Habermas:

“Professor Habermas, someone once told me that it is said that, as Plato’s cosmology is to ancient physics, and as Kant’s philosophy is to modern physics, so is your philosophy to post-Heisenbergian quantum mechanics. Would you care to comment on that?”

The report I received is that Habermas was not especially generous in his response to this question. (Though I should add that I met Habermas once and found him to be wonderful, as has been the case with every “star” figure I’ve met or corresponded with, no exceptions.)

A couple of Derrida comebacks to harsh questions

Q: “Professor Derrida, do you think you’re a genius?”

Derrida: “No, no, no, no, no, no, nooooooo….. But that doesn’t mean I’m not.”

Q: “Professor Derrida, do you think you’re Jesus?”

Derrida: “Sometimes. Especially when I’m being crucified.”