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Elliot Temple on January 18, 2010

Messages (2)

Oh, come on. How could you hate a man who wrote, "A witty saying proves nothing?"

I think you're taking the prima facie reading of this quotation to heart. It's clear that he was writing metaphorically, as he often did.

And how do laws represent accumulated knowledge? All they represent is accumulated opinion, which is subject to human fallibility.

If anything, he was rejecting the implicit veracity of tradition.


lz0 at 6:28 PM on January 29, 2010 | #1970 | reply | quote

So our laws don't contain more knowledge of how to have a peaceful society than, say, ancient Roman laws?

Of course it's a metaphor. He doesn't mean burn them, he means throw them out, disregard them, ignore them, and start from scratch. Starting from scratch is exactly the wrong way to create good laws.


Elliot at 7:04 PM on January 29, 2010 | #1971 | reply | quote

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