paraplaying (and bullies)

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Richard.Zander at MOBOT.ORG wrote:
>
> Bertrand Russell in his autobiography told of his youthful adherence to
> Hegelianism and wrote of his relief when one day he abandoned it and "a
> table became just a table."

> > > ah, but if you want an "obvious, unique, optimal and all-purpose"
> > >something, maybe you need Hegelian dialectical methodology.
>
> I once was impressed by some form of "Hegelianism". Seems to me it was long
> ago. I'm now baffled by Hegelian confusion, specially "dialectics" (a
> methodology, you say? Where can I read the manual please?). "Hegel" now
> makes me turn on all my rational warnings.

* Hegel may have supposed that dialectic was a form of reasoning - I was
using it only to display conclusions I'd reached 20 years before.

As for methodology: find a situation where you think your position is
both a compromise between, and an improvement upon, contrasting popular
views (this should cover just about every situation). Call the more
popular view the thesis, the less popular the antithesis, and your view
the synthesis, and you've performed a dialectic...

fred.
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           Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad, Jennifer Helene Schueler
      RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
     (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
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