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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2611 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 17, 2024

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 working through McGilchrist.

Started reading Lying for Money on Sunday morning. As I expected I'm finding it extremely absorbing, and I'm more than halfway through it already. Worth reading for the content and analysis, but Davies brings it up a notch with his very particularly English style of wit. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, it's a very sensible chuckle sort of humour that's a perfect match for this kind of "I can't believe someone had the audacity to try this" material.

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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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