Outside the Beltway

A Photo for Friday

"Innerspace"

Steven L. Taylor · Friday, August 27, 2021 · 6 comments

Last week was Felix, so this week it seems appropriate that it be Oscar:

“Inner Space”

January 16, 2021

Pike Road, AL

FILED UNDER: Photo for Friday, Photography

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

gVOR08 says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 16:26

This morning’s column by Farad Manjoo I Can’t Stop Wondering What’s Going On Inside My Cat’s Head</> seems apt.

It’s not only because they are impossibly cute. What I have found magical is the way the kittens help lift my gaze above dreary immediate circumstance. There is a lot going on in the world, a lot of it unpleasant. Watching the cats romp about has become a reliable way to escape all that. I find myself jumping from small questions — does Luna seriously not realize, yet, that she is attached to her tail? — to larger, more abstract and eternal ones: Does Luna even understand that she is — does she, in the way René Descartes conceived it, possess knowledge of a self?

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flat earth luddite says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 17:14

No, dad, I’m not interested in talking right now. But thanks for asking.

(Great shot!)
Mister Bluster says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 17:15

…possess knowledge of a self?..

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grumpy realist says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 17:20

It might depend on the intelligence of the cat. One of ours very quickly realised that the red spot at the end of the laser pointer was intangible and would allow herself to go scampering after it only as long as she thought it was amusing. Then there would be a very obvious “I’m bored chasing something that isn’t real” change and she would wander off.

One of my friend’s cats, however……never did figure out that the red spot wasn’t real. There was a reason she was nicknamed “bird-brain.”
OzarkHillbilly says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 17:31

I really like the half portrait framing.

2
gVOR08 says:

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 18:01

@grumpy realist: Our other cats would chase the red dot. Our Black Burmese would look at the spot, give us a disgusted look, and go back to ignoring us. She ignored us most of the time. Always in the room we were in. If the other cats wanted strokes they’d mew and rub against our legs. Bonnie would walk over and whack you on the shin if she wanted attention. She had too much personality to not be self aware.

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