site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1778 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026

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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

We want to register for an encyclopedia. Which encyclopedias do the esteemed autists of the Motte recommend?

What are your goals? Do you want a physical repository of information as insurance against AI sloppification or some kind of catastrophe? Do you want an old-fashioned collector's item with beautiful binding and illustrations to put in your home library? Do you want something to assist with your children's education? Do you want a snapshot of what the world looked like at a particular point in time? You're obviously looking for something more than just general reference information, which can be obtained much more efficiently online.

For most applications, I'd probably recommend a full edition of Britannica from 20 or so years ago: recent enough that most of the information is still good, but old enough to be before the collapse of traditional publishing and all the corner cutting that led to. The older the edition, the higher quality the physical books, illustrations, etc. are likely to be. If you want something current, the World Book is (I think) the only general reference encyclopedia still publishing a print edition every year, so you really don't have many options unless you're interested in something like The Book, which you probably saw youtube or instagram ads for last year, but that's more of a coffee table book than a true encyclopedia.

I definitely don't want current - goal is a reference book for kids so they don't have to go in the Internet to learn everything. I'm fine with it being a bit outdated. The Brittanica seems like a good choice yeah.

I grew up with a ~20 yr old classroom set of Brittanica and it was awesome. The volumes were large and full of pictures and easy explanations. My family would randomly look things up. And it was useful even when out of date - e.g. my folks would have us look up the names of the continents at the library and we could discuss why knowledge changes over time.

Yesterday my daughter asked if we really needed a dead tree dictionary, and if I insisted we did did we really need both a Websters and an Oxford English dictionary. (In her defense, dyslexia makes using dictionaries particularly challenging.)

Yesterday my daughter asked if we really needed a dead tree dictionary, and if I insisted we did did we really need both a Websters and an Oxford English dictionary.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6zMeqYqaRoU

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats