Dagger in hand

A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Tuesday, September 03, 2002
 
I've been getting a lot of hits lately (relatively speaking; my hits are miniscule in absolute terms) from people doing google searches for "Visionary Philosopher." What's that about? Are other people taking the test and then searching for spiritual brethren? Probably not a good idea. I mean, how many VPs can you think of who could have stayed in the same room together without winding up at each other's throats? In fact, the claymation guys who do "Celebrity Death Match" really ought to do a special series called "Visionary Philosopher Death Match." As John Goodman said in his greatest role, "I'll show you the life of the mind!!!" Just imagine Aristotle assisting Plato's contemplation of the eidos of pain. Hobbes bodyslamming Descartes. "Doubt this, Frenchy boy!" (The correspondence between those two, by the way, has got to be the greatest classic example of two smart people arguing without really communicating.) Newton v. Leibniz ("Monads, schmonads, here's one to the gonads!"). Rand v. ... oh hell, anybody. This would be fun to spin out at greater length, but I really do have work to do. Besides, maybe these people just want to get together and binge on chocolate.


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