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Few things are as mentally refreshing as looking at the world from a completely different perspective — to see things through the eyes of someone you don’t like and don’t agree with at all. If nothing else, it helps you sort out your own thoughts. (more…)
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One of the most common reasons people fail to communicate is that they use the same terms to mean different things. For instance, “bark” can refer to the voice of a dog or the skin of a tree, and a conversation between people who don’t know they are using the term in two different ways is the stuff of comedy. In logic, we call this error “equivocation,” meaning calling different things by the same name, and not knowing it.
The concept of “sovereignty” is often used equivocally, which causes immense confusion. (more…)
1.511 slov
English original here
Ben Novak
Hitler and Abductive Logic: The Strategy of a Tyrant
Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2014
„Nahlédni do své duše a uvidíš, že je to pravda.“
Kniha Hitler a abduktivní logika Bena Novaka je dost možná tím nejvíce strhujícím akademickým titulem, na jaký jsem kdy narazil. Přináší smělou a nápaditou syntézu filozofie, historie, životopisu i literárního umu. (more…)
2,272 words
Nature is a temple, where the living
Columns sometimes breathe of confusing speech;
Man walks within these groves of symbols, each
Of which regards him as a kindred thing.
— Charles Baudelaire, “Correspondence” (more…)
Detail, Santi di Tito, Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, ca. 1550.
Detail, Santi di Tito, Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, ca. 1550.
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I had been aware for some time of the phrase “the engineer’s fallacy,” but unaware of its provenance and exact definition. I struck lucky on the ‘net, because this gentleman claims to have invented the phrase, and this short piece repays inspection.
Mr. Kelly’s definition of the Engineer’s Fallacy is pleasingly simple: (more…)