ABSTRACT
I write this essay as someone who was once trained in the historyof philosophy, and yet I write now more often in interdisciplinary contexts in which that training, such as it was, appears only in refracted form. So for this and surely for other reasons as well what you will receive from me is not a “philosophy paper” or, indeed, a paper in philosophy, though it may be “on” philosophy but from a perspective that may or may not be recognizable as philosophical. For this I hope I will be forgiven. What I have to offer is not exactly an argument, and it is not exactly rigorous, and whether or not it conforms to standards of perspicacity that currently reign in the institution of philosophy is difficult for me to say. This may well have a certain importance, even philosophical importance, that I did not originally intend. I do not live or write or work in the institution of philosophy and have not for several years, and it has been almost as many years since I have asked myself the question: what would a philosopher make of what I have to offer?
