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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2561 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 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.

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So, what are you reading?

I've finished Said's The Question of Palestine, Thoughts below. Not much progress on Savrola. Giving McLuhan's The Classical Trivium another try; the third or so that I've read has stayed with me.

Reading The Story of Philosophy by Durant. It's ok but wayyyy too focused on the analytic tradition. Durant's writing is fun and entertaining but I don't like his opinions that much. He's pretty scornful of religion and seems to really like the enlightenment atheists, which is a turnoff.

If anyone has a similar recommendation but with less of an ideological bent, I'm all ears.

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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.


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