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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1542 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 4, 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'm still on al-Katibi's The Rules of Logic. Also picking up Addas' House of the Prophet.

The Control of Nature, John McPhee. I was expecting an essay about the New Orleans levees, but it actually covers the Old River Control System upstream. This is designed to keep the Mississippi from changing course, which is way cooler than just mitigating floods.

I’ve written before about McPhee’s talent for English and I have not yet been disappointed. Still, there haven’t been any lines as quotable as Levels of the Game or Rising From the Plains…yet.

Have you read Cadillac Desert? Sounds like it might be up your alley.

No, I'll have to check it out!

Oh it's pretty great.

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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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