From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Sep 1 16:36: 6 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18C21154AD for ; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 16:36:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA06521; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 17:06:44 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990901165443.047f7a30@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 17:05:19 -0600 To: "Matthew D. Fuller" From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: Why? (Was: Re: FreeBSD, the follower of Linux ?) Cc: Jay Nelson , chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19990901171256.C18814@futuresouth.com> References: <4.2.0.58.19990901144318.047adb10@localhost> <4.2.0.58.19990831184900.00a3ed40@localhost> <4.2.0.58.19990901144318.047adb10@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 05:12 PM 9/1/99 -0500, Matthew D. Fuller wrote: >> Why not? Controversy is good. Aristotle, way back in ancient Greece, > > recognized that the dialectic -- argument and discussion -- is what > > leads to progress and to knowledge. > >Aristotle did this to forward a personal agenda and complete the burial >of the Sophists. Who deserved, in many ways, to be buried. Socrates, Plato, et al specialized in argument via leading questions (see any of Plato's dialogues), a ploy which can only be overcome by questioning the questions. Hence, Aristotle's insistence upon FREE discussion of issues rather than the Sophists' overly constrained questioning, which could be manipulated to lead only where the questioner desired. >However, we stray from the necessary flameage, so for the sake of >completeness, 'Your mother was a hamster...' "That's not an argument, that's abuse." ;-) --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message