MC Hammer is philosophy’s new champion

Philosophy has a new champion. MC Hammer, hip hop artist and record producer, known for songs like ‘Can’t Touch This’, used Twitter to respond to someone who dismissed philosophy as mere ‘flirtation with ideas’, and who claimed that science alone is ‘commitment to the truth’. Hammer hammered him. ‘You bore us’, he said, pointing out that science has a dubious history, and needs philosophy to keep it in check, adding the wise words: ‘When you measure, include the measurer.’ 

In fact, this will come as little surprise to his regular followers. His Twitter platform is rife with intellectually stimulating debate, and it’s a not a matter of a few pretentious fans wondering whether ‘Can’t Touch This’ refers to the question of immaterial transcendence. Instead, it’s all down to MC Hammer himself (real name Stanley Burrell). He has often discussed current affairs and abstract ideas with his online followers, and has encouraged them to read philosophers such as Nietzsche and Baudrillard.