“The World That Knew We Were Coming”

—Title of Chapter Six in Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul, by Kenneth Miller

Replace Calvin in Sunday’s Calvin and Hobbes strip with “Homo sapiens“, and you have an accurate description of theological human exceptionalism, as well as an inkling of the evolutionary teleology of misguided philosophers like Tom Nagel:

The strip was drawn by Bill Watterson, a very interesting fellow (do have a look at his Wikipedia bio). He stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes in 1995, but I guess they’re recycled—and none the worse for it.

As for the philosophical/academic preoccupation of some of the strips, Wikipedia notes the following in its piece on Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin is the young boy, Hobbes his stuffed tiger, and you can guess where their names came from):

Watterson also lampooned the academic world. In one example, Calvin writes a “revisionist autobiography,” recruiting Hobbes to take pictures of him doing stereotypical kid activities like playing sports in order to make him seem more well-adjusted. In another strip, he carefully crafts an “artist’s statement,” claiming that such essays convey more messages than artworks themselves ever do (Hobbes blandly notes, “You misspelled Weltanschauung“). He indulges in what Watterson calls “pop psychobabble” to justify his destructive rampages and shift blame to his parents, citing “toxic codependency.” In one instance, he pens a book report based on the theory that the purpose of academic writing is to “inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity,” titled The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives in Dick and Jane: A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender Modes. Displaying his creation to Hobbes, he remarks, “Academia, here I come!” Watterson explains that he adapted this jargon (and similar examples from several other strips) from an actual book of art criticism.

Here’s that famous “academia, here I come!” strip:

Professor Ceiling cat also has a stuffed tiger!: