Uni-context

Derek Thompson had a fascinating conversation with a University of Chicago Professor on “Uni-context.” Here’s a summary: “One of my favorite conversations on Plain English in the last few months was my talk with the University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard about her grand theory of the uni-context. For the purposes of the following paragraphs, I would define the uni-context as the ethical and value-based consequences of telecommunications technology making everybody feel as though they live in the same universal room together. Callard predicts that the uni-context nudges people to focus on negativity over positivity and identity over character, because in both cases, the former is more context-independent. (That is, I am a white guy in every context, but I am only jealous or patient in certain contexts, so my identity as a man is more context-independent than my character.) I was particularly struck my Callard’s observations about comparison and envy. She asks us to imagine two…