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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2082 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 25, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

Still on the Iliad, Dialectic of Enlightenment and McLuhan's Classical Trivium. Trying Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism.

Still on The Perfect Heresy. It's a lot more accessible than the last book I read about the Cathars (Montaillou) but still a bit difficult in absolute terms. The voice is a bit droning and I sometimes forget how a paragraph started by the time I get to the end of it.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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