Disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the then-current Philippine-American War, Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) wrote The War Prayer in 1904. It was considered too sacrilegious and provocative for the times. Twain agreed to bury it, but wanted it published after his death (“I have told the truth in that… and only dead men can tell the truth in this world”). He died in 1910, and it was published in Harper’s Monthly, November 1916. I have always…
The trouble with philosophical abstraction is that it tries to create a space separated from the world. The metaphor of the slippery slope, for example, has become almost literal. That’s why it is often effective. Who wants to slide down a slippery slope? What is unstated but operative is that this metaphor encourages the reader/hearer to assume – without question – that there exists a place that is not slippery, where one cannot slide or fall. In our complex world…
Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see. Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes! Nothing can be love or hated unless it is first known. Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence he is just using his memory. The depth and…