The Ballad of Marie and Elsie
There was a young woman from Anglesea
Who took quite a shine to philosophy.
She pondered a lot
Upon “ought” and “ought not”,
Which stopped when she noticed a bee.
The bee’s name was Elsie, the woman’s Marie,
Marie was disgusted, while Elsie sipped tea,
She searched for a weapon to
Teach Elsie a lesson
And send off that bee, straight to eternity.
The weapon was found in just a few seconds,
‘Twas Kant’s noble work on the law and the heavens.
She grabbed it real tight,
And whacked with some might –
Poor Elsie was dead and deprived of all presence.
Marie was relieved she got rid of the beast,
Returned to her books and forgot the deceased,
And pondered again
The essence of man,
The good and the bad, what counts most and what least.
◊ ◊ ◊
Michael Hauskeller is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Liverpool, UK. He specializes in moral and existential philosophy, but has also done work in various other areas, most notably phenomenology (the theory of atmospheres), the philosophy of art and beauty, and the philosophy of human enhancement.
His publications include Biotechnology and the Integrity of Life (Routledge 2007), Better Humans? Understanding the Enhancement Project (Routledge 2013), Sex and the Posthuman Condition (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television (ed. with T. Philbeck and C. Carbonell, Palgrave 2015), Mythologies of Transhumanism (Palgrave Macmillan 2016), Moral Enhancement. Critical Perspectives (ed. with L. Coyne, Cambridge University Press 2018), and The Meaning of Life and Death (Bloomsbury 2019). His most recent book is The Things that Really Matter. Philosophical Conversations on the Cornerstones of Life (UCL Press, 2022).
Michael Hauskeller on Daily Philosophy:
Cover image by Boris Smokrovic on Unsplash.
