josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.

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21 Nov '09 09:39:01 PM

'It is useful to have examined in how many ways a word is said both for the sake of clarity (for someone would better know what it is he is conceding once it had been brought to light in how many ways the term is applied) and in order to make our deductions concern the thing itself rather than being about a word. For when it is unclear in how many ways something is said, it is possible that the answerer and the questioner are not thinking about the same thing; but once it has been brought to light in how many ways it is applied and which of these the answerer is thinking about in conceding the premiss, the questioner would appear ridiculous if he did not make his argument about this.'

10 Nov '09 10:54:02 PM

'…the hand is a tool of tools…'

30 Oct '09 08:11:19 PM

Yesterday, I used my reason to realize two things:

1. Why towns have signs directing people to churches.

2. Why raincoats are long.

30 Oct '09 08:09:10 PM

(It turns out that just at that moment, the driver and I were on a corner with a sign pointing at the church in question.)

13 Oct '09 04:08:28 PM

A car drives up to me on the street in Decorah and the driver rolls down his window: 'You wouldn't know where there's a Catholic church in town, would you?'

'I haven't yet figured that out, myself.'

11 Oct '09 07:54:40 PM

'Will you look at the sky, pig! (Lucky looks at the sky.)'

2 Oct '09 03:04:32 AM

'for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost'

23 Sep '09 04:20:09 AM

'Everyone who lived at that time, not being as wise as you young ones are today, found it rewarding enough in their simplicity to listen to an oak or even a stone, so long as it was telling the truth, while it seems to make a difference to you, Phaedrus, who is speaking and where he comes from.'

22 Sep '09 04:13:49 PM

'Question: Can a philosopher actually commit himself with good conscience to having something to teach every day? And to teaching it to anyone who wants to listen? Must he not pretend to know more than he actually knows? Must he not speak before an audience about matters he can only safely discuss with his closest friends?'