Philosophy for Passengers

by Michael Marder, Tomás Saraceno (Photography)

A philosophical guide to passengerhood, with reflections on time, space, existence, boredom, our sense of self, and our sense of the senses.

While there are entire bookstore sections—and even entire bookstores—devoted to travel, there have been few books on the universal experience of being a passenger. With this book, philosopher Michael Marder fills the gap, offering a philosophical guide to passengerhood. He takes readers from ticketing and preboarding (preface and introduction) through a series of stops and detours (reflections on topics including time, space, existence, boredom, our sense of self, and our sense of the senses) to destination and disembarking (conclusion).

Marder finds that the experience of passengers in the twenty-first century is experience itself, stretching well beyond railroad tracks and airplane flight patterns. On his journey through passengerhood, he considers, among many other things, passenger togetherness, which goes hand in hand with passenger loneliness; flyover country and the idea of placeness; and Descartes in an airplane seat. He tells us that the word metaphor means transport in Greek and discusses the gray area between literalness and metaphoricity; explains the connection between reading and riding; and ponders the difference between destination and destiny. Finally, a Beckettian you might not be able to disembark, yet you must disembark. After the voyage in the world ends, the journey of understanding begins.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Travel

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. An author of seven books and over 100 articles, he is a specialist in phenomenology, political thought, and environmental philosophy.

Reviews

[Linnéa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice fitting book for passage of time and something you can pick up every now and then without having to read it all in one go. Some nice thoughts and reflections which spurred my own - overall enjoyable

[Brittany Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this at a small, local bookshop in Italy. Read in planes, trains & automobiles between Rome, Florence, Ortesi & Venice. I enjoyed this bite-sized philosophy book focused on passenger hood in every regard.

[Yifei Men · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spotted this book at MIT press while on a trip, and the subject matter of passengerhood resonated well.

It's been a while since I've picked up a book so academic in tone and rhetoric, and it is both mesmirizing at initial encounters and distancing in its recourse. Overall, using the concept of passengerhood as a conceit for analysis of our experiences and life was an attractive entrypoint. Marder does a wonderful job, in my opinion, holding up the concept to different lenses: anecdotal, emotive, linguistic, logical, historical. The short chapters interspersed with abstract paintings left a sense of capaciousness and wonder that is quite welcome. I must say that the middle sections left me quite befuddled, or quite lost at sea, perhaps owing to my own lack of education in the philosophy department.

At the end of the day, I don't think I have super concrete takeaways from the book, but its provocation is emotionally resonant in a time where the everyday seems to be a hustle onwards, with some vague destination (richer, better, happier) that is as elusive as it is within grasp; where we are both headed there on this journey we embark, while also helplessly shuttled on the vehicle that we've boarded; where we're surrounded, bombarded by happenings and people, but feel intimately alone, insular in our paths -- paradoxical but non contradictory.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a clever idea. Travel is good for doing philosophy with much time for thinking alone about big questions and opportunities for conversation with diverse people. And though all of us have spent many hours, perhaps too many hours, of our lives as passengers, few of us have thought deeply about what it means to be a passenger or the implications of passengerhood. So here we get the ontology of the passenger, the movement, the confinement, the ceding of control, the sense of transition, the boredom, the anticipation of destination, the separate aspects of each stage of travel from departure, to movement, to changing modes of transport, to disembarking, to arrival. There's a separate philosophy for each stage. And then there is the metaphorical sense of being a passenger, as we are all passengers in our family, our community, and our various cohorts and indeed on our planet as it hurtles through space.

The book provides more questions than answers, but for a philosophy book, I'd say that is a strength, not a weakness. Some of the musings in the book did not go anywhere for me, and sometimes I felt trapped as the author went down a path that did little for me. I suppose I should have accepted that as being consistent with the broader themes of the book, as a reader is a sort of passenger, carried along by the author's plan and taking meaning from the journey as much as from the destination, but I sometimes wished for a better view out of my metaphorical window.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphical short book about what it means to be a passenger in society, and how being a passenger provides a window to our place in society. Interesting graphics in the short book by The MIT Press. There are times when the pondering of big ideas in this book tends to wander, chapters are marked with trips and journeys of passage. The graphics are striking but somewhat abstract. (3.6-3.8/5.0 stars).

[Eduarda Silva]

19 longos dias de viagem, que terminaram com uma delicadeza que só emociona uma portuguesa: pensar em destino (destiny) e destino (destination) com Fernando Pessoa.

Livro difícil, mas com visões e temas interessantes para quem viaja todos os dias - fisicamente ou intelectualmente. Contudo, haverão outras perspectivas, igualmente válidas.

Terei de reler, um dia... 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Movie Goer · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re strange aren’t we?
(The book ended when my passengerhood on the trip to Portugal ended and my flight landed, good timing)

[Mik Tampold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as deep or as rigorous as I would have liked, but still a fairly thought-provoking book.

[Alberto Sepúlveda]

Menos guay de lo que me esperaba. Algunas ideas son chulas. Hay una especie de intento de hacer como en los Pasajes de Benjamin pero claro, con Benjamin toda comparación es para perderla.