A Little History Of Discovery

jackfowler · Jul 19, 2019

When it comes the paper books, try Isaac Asimov’s Chronology of Science & Discovery. It’s $20+ per copy on Amazon.com:

Amulet · Mar 26, 2020

@Novalis
Was re-reading "Why facts don't change our minds", and thought about this post...

Ouroboros said: ↑

2: The Art of Being Right

My library app inquires: Would you like to curate this book into a list?

I have not yet organised my books into lists. But if I did, I would dump them all into a single list: books I wish I had read earlier in my life. The next book is also that royful read with insights on the argumentativeness of unruly voices. Who else but our 'abit onus' Schopenhauer could have come up with this reckoning.

When Schopenhauer is not getting into scrapes with old crones in his building, he composed good, witty, and satirical works on reasoning. One such pocket guide to refer to for any disputation is "The Art Of Being Right." This is not your platitudinous book on ideals and integrity in a just world. But it is about how to best your unscrupulous opponent who plays by no rules. If you are impugned by baseless allegations and retarded logic, then, rather than hang your face return the wicked taste of their own medicine. Illogical beliefs are cured by illogical devilry. Though he warns at the end of his book that such ill-disposed arsenal of fallacious barbs to counter falsified reasoning should be unleashed only when you have somehow gotten yourself into an unforeseen argument with an ignoramus. Else, avoid the rumblings of such hostile altercation brought on by the impetuosity of your opponent and withdraw before it blows up into a ridiculous allegation.

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Know thy enemy!

As a sharpening of wits, controversy is often, indeed, of mutual advantage, in order to correct one's thoughts and awaken new views. But in learning and in mental power both disputants must be tolerably equal: If one of them lacks learning, he will fail to understand the other, as he is not on the same level with his antagonist. If he lacks mental power, he will be embittered, and led into dishonest tricks, and end by being rude.

Remember ..'will be embittered and end by being rude'.

The only safe rule, therefore, is that which Aristotle mentions in the last chapter of his Topica: not to dispute with the first person you meet, but only with those of your acquaintance of whom you know that they possess sufficient intelligence and self-respect not to advance absurdities; to appeal to reason and not to authority, and to listen to reason and yield to it; and, finally, to cherish truth, to be willing to accept reason even from an opponent, and to be just enough to bear being proved to be in the wrong, should truth lie with him.

From this it follows that scarcely one man in a hundred is worth your disputing with him. You may let the remainder say what they please, for every one is at liberty to be a fool - desipere est jus gentium. Remember what Voltaire says: La paix vaut encore mieux que la verite. Remember also an Arabian proverb which tells us that on the tree of silence there hangs its fruit, which is peace.

Hence this book should be cataloged under "I wish I had read earlier in my life". Many a time I met blinkered folks who cry foul for disabusing them that Earth is not flat and Santa Claus does not exist. But don't accept the gauntlet of every beguiling challenge. Remember that Arabian proverb or Voltaire's prudence 'which tells us that on the tree of silence there hangs its fruit, which is peace'. Choose peace over truth in wrong-headed arguments.
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A Little History Of Discovery

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