N.Y. Times starts a philosophy column

Simon Critchley LAUNCHES IT.

Here’s one reader comment from inside the family, almost amusing in its cynicism:

“God knows that philosophers are laughing-stocks these days, but I hope Mr. Critchley doesn’t think he’s *helping*, with claims that philosophers are ‘monstrous or god-like or indeed both at once,’ or that ‘to philosophize is to take your time.’ As if I don’t get enough sneers when people find out I hold a philosophy degree. Philosophers are little men in little offices who write unreadable papers about symbolic logic or metaethics. That’s all.”

But this series will be worth keeping an eye on. It is often said that philosophers get nothing but sneers, but I often find the opposite to be the case: you can meet people in the strangest places who are deeply interested in the subject. And certainly the readership of the NY Times ought to be up to it, right?