Comey has been fun

I have yet to watch any video, or read a complete transcript, but I keep reading news reports that have snippets, and I have to say I have loved "listening" to Comey. He talks just like a philosopher! The way he takes into account the words that were said, the way they were said, the circumstances, how others behaved, all that stuff, and explains how each of these gave him this or that impression, and led to this or that inference, etc. It's all great stuff. (Well, it's my sort of stuff, not everybody's.)

I think his awareness of all the different factors and carefulness with language reflects a life in law and law enforcement practiced at a high level. Philosophers rarely look at specimens of legal reasoning--J. L. Austin being the notable exception that leaps to mind--but it's where the rubber meets the road for a lot of the speculation philosophers do. (Austin reached for legal decisions when thinking about responsibility.)

It's easy to imagine some of this as a discussion among linguists and philosophers: suppose someone said to you, "I hope you can let this go," how would you interpret that? Suppose they were your boss, suppose they were your boss and asked everyone else to leave the room first, suppose your immediate superior lingered awkwardly until he was explicitly dismissed. It's great fun, and Comey seems to do this stuff really well.