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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2741 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 15, 2023

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 going through Plato's Protagoras. Have been reading about the sophists recently.

Paper I'm reading: Crombe and Nagl's A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force.

Code of the Woosters. I had somehow never gained any familiarity with the Jeeves and Wooster series. My girlfriend corrected this oversight, and now I get to enjoy some archetypal British humor. The prose is delightful…and also explains a few things about her approach to the English language.

Annals of a Fortress, Violette-le-duc. It’s a fictional history of a fortification in eastern France. The book was originally written after the Franco-Prussian War by a legendary architect and engineer. It would go on to influence a generation of military planners even as his other work inspired every architect from Gaudí to Le Corbusier. I have a translation from 110 years later, and I’m very excited to dig into it.

I really need to get around to reading some Jeeves and Wooster, I've been a fan of the tv series ever since I was a lad and my Dad has always gone to great lengths to impress upon me just how good the books are.

It's been absolute gold. Laugh-out-loud. We're alternating reading it to each other before bed just to experience the surprise and comedic timing.

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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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