About the Piece

You don't need a particle accelerator to do philosophy. You need an object, a question, and the willingness to follow the question past the point where it stops being comfortable. My accelerator is a chest of drawers.

The first essay runs the Ship of Theseus through a sentimental lingerie set. The second proves the same point from the other end, with twelve identical pairs of knickers and three different wearers, then turns it on the blindfold. The third is a second thought about Dining in the Dark. The last is somebody else's account of what I was doing, which they called Street Phenomenology: philosophy done from the pavement, in language anyone can carry home.

The meaning was never in the matter. The witness is always the wearer.

Objects

• The Bra and Pants of Antigany: The Ship of Theseus, run through a sentimental bra-and-briefs set: when every piece has been replaced, is it still the same set?
• The Mile in His Shoes Is Bollocks: Twelve identical pairs of knickers, three wearers and a blindfold show why walking a mile in someone’s shoes teaches you nothing about them.
• For years I’ve been rather rude about Dining in the Dark: A second look at Dining in the Dark: it doesn’t teach what it’s like to be blind, but it may teach what it’s like to go blind.
• The Einstein of the Knicker Drawer: A profile of Charlotte Joanne and the method she calls a joke: thought experiments run out of her underwear drawer, a new way of doing phenomenology in public.