Sidney Morgenbesser Has Done Some Funny Shit

During a lecture the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin made the claim that although a double negative in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To which Morgenbesser responded in a dismissive tone, "Yeah, yeah."

Morgenbesser was leaving a subway station in New York City and put his pipe in his mouth as he was ascending the steps. A police officer told him that there was no smoking on the subway. Morgenbesser pointed out that he was leaving the subway, not entering it, and hadn't lit up yet anyway. The cop repeated his injunction. Morgenbesser repeated his observation. After a few such exchanges, the cop saw he was beaten and fell back on the oldest standby of enfeebled authority: "If I let you do it, I'd have to let everyone do it." To this the old professor replied, "Who do you think you are, Kant?" The word "Kant" was mistaken for a vulgar epithet and Morgenbesser had to explain the situation at the police station.

On the independence of irrelevant alternatives: After finishing dinner, Sidney Morgenbesser decides to order dessert. The waitress tells him he has two choices: apple pie and blueberry pie. Sidney orders the apple pie. After a few minutes the waitress returns and says that they also have cherry pie at which point Morgenbesser says "In that case I'll have the blueberry pie."

Morgenbesser once set this as an exam question: “It is often said that Marx and Freud went too far. How far would you go?”

In response to Heidegger's ontological query "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Morgenbesser answered "If there were nothing you'd still be complaining!"

Morgenbesser was the first to teach a class on Marx at Columbia's philosophy department in the late 1960s. A young faculty member, a Marxist, sat in. Sidney's own reading of Marx was very methodological individualist, very Jon Elster like. After the semester, Sidney asked his young colleague what he thought of the course. The guy replied, "Sidney, that was the best class on David Hume I've ever taken."

To this the old professor replied, "Who do you think you are, Kant?" The word "Kant" was mistaken for a vulgar epithet and Morgenbesser had to explain the situation at the police station.

does this work in any american accent?

the first one is the funniest thing i've ever read in an obituary but i always wonder with such rejoinders if it wasn't esprit d'escalier and they printed the legend

joe besser >>> s. morgenbesser

xpost I think Americans tend to pronounce Kant differently from we Britishers? While we pretty much just say 'can't' theirs is more of a 'Kawnt'. IME.

I love these, gimme more.

Morgenbesser described Gentile ethics as entailing “ought implies can” while in Jewish ethics “can implies don’t.”

A few weeks before his death, he asked another Columbia philosopher, David Albert, about God. "Why is God making me suffer so much?" he asked. "Just because I don't believe in him?"

^ they pronounce 'cunt' slightly differently too though ha

but i always wonder with such rejoinders if it wasn't esprit d'escalier and they printed the legend
Don't know about the incident to which you refer but the double negative "Yeah, yeah" incident seems to have occurred as reported. Among others, Arthur C. Danto was at that lecture and heard him say it.

*bump*