Sophistry is fun, yo!

[mahnmut]

Ya know, I can never help but express my utter fascination with the utter prowess in the theory of ethics demonstated by Philosophy PhD'ers and the like. Somehow, even put in situations of extreme stress such as the frequent moments of mental diarrhea (or even physiological one), or when suddenly pushed out of bed early in the morning, they're always able to wrap up the simplest of issues in an elaborate garment and make it look so fashionable, sparkly, and, you know, sophisticated.

If we could all just sit down, have some soft drinks and endlessly indulge in semantics, rhetorics and sophistry instead of cutting, you know, to the heart of issues in a comprehensive, simple, practical and effective way, the world would've been a much better place. Amirite? :-P

Comments

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I know you didn't mention trolling. I did. You merely mentioned sophistry. I included the notions of jargon and trolling, being somewhat familiar with rhetoric, which has little to do with ethics or morality, excepting in presentation via language.

I prefer natural language discussions: if it can't be explained without jargon, then there's not much point making an argument appealing to even otherwise informed and educated folk. This can make explaining some ideas in economics next-to-impossible, but never mind: we all have our crosses to bear. :)

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Why is this circling around jargon? Do you by 'jargon' just mean 'ordinary people's language'?

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Nah, by 'jargon' I mean the indefensible part of essius's prolixity.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Brb much get a dictionary.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Not even a 'HaHa'. Dammit, I must be slipping.