Philosophy Confidential: October 2007

Monday, October 29, 2007

Minimal Maxims/#2 in a series

Hope lights a path out of the darkest woods; misadventure leads us back into them. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Let bygones be bygones" is not so much good advice as a brute fact precisely because the past is unalterable. --Lord Acton

Even a poor argument by a Russell or a Dewey can be a thing of beauty, but a page of Heidegger is the ultimate insult. --A.J. Ayer

Having a conscience is a terrible burden except in the most favorable circumstances. --Oscar Wilde

The worst affairs, the ones which present the most intractable problems, are nearly always the work of single women or married men. --Marcel Proust

Etymologically Mixed Metaphor (see "Mixed, Not Stirred" below)

A writer for the New Yorker (October 29, 2007, p. 66) used the expression "spacious confines" to describe the metaphor "in the arena of truth." One might call this an etymologically mixed meta-metaphor.

Eine Kleine Nachtphilosophie

There can be little doubt that philosophy’s history is filled with incidents and anecdotes that reveal the thought and character of philosophers in ways that complement and often go beyond their published works. Kant and his critics, Schopenhauer’s notorious rivalry with Hegel, which led to the former’s resigning his university position and leaving academic life, Sir Karl Popper’s encounter with Wittgenstein, in which the latter allegedly threatened the former with a poker, presumably in the heat of a philosophical quarrel! -- all are part of the lore of modern philosophy dating from the eighteenth century to the present and illuminate not only the disputes and disagreements that constitute its history but also the alliances and antagonisms that characterize its human dimension.

The name Philosophy Confidential is indicative of this blog's tendency to blend intellectual history with rumor and innuendo, tabloid style. I have not gone so far as to delve into court documents, plea agreements, employment contracts, and disclosure forms—as if such materials would reveal even more questionable practices than those to be discussed. As it happens, philosophers have for the most part led exemplary lives, worthy of emulation and, in some cases, a well-intentioned joke.

I have sometimes paraphrased instead of using direct quotes, but to a very great extent I have let philosophers speak for themselves. Nevertheless, and by way of warning, I caution readers that here or there an item of dubious provenance may have found its way into the narrative.

Philosophy Confidential

Monday, October 29, 2007

Minimal Maxims/#2 in a series

Etymologically Mixed Metaphor (see "Mixed, Not Stirred" below)

Eine Kleine Nachtphilosophie

Blog Archive

About Me