Arthur Balfour article

[spike]

Issue 81 has an interesting, free article on Arthur Balfour, reluctant prime minster of Britain, 1902-1905: http://philosophynow.org/issue81/81madigan.htm

There is a salient quote in the article from Balfour's uncle, Robert Cecil that still rings true: "The use of Conservatism is to delay changes till they become harmless". I'd add to that, or at least delay changes till the broader community is able to digest them.

[Richard Baron]

Besides his own writings, Balfour has the distinction of having featured in a Gettier case that Russell noted, avant la lettre. A man had the justified true belief that in 1906, the Prime Minster's name began with a B. But the man thought that Balfour was still PM in 1906, when in fact he had been succeeded by Bannerman.

(Source: Russell, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, first published in 1948 and on page 140 in the 2009 reprint.)

[spike]

Imagine, initially I misspelled Balfour's name.

I don't think I would have read the article about him if its tile had not included the word paradox. It is a word that always gets my attention.

Paradox is also applicable to the theme of issue 81 in which the Balfour article appears. The theme is metaphysics, a category of paradoxes and confusion which examines opposites, the fundamentals and complexity of the world, sometimes at cross purposes.

[RickLewis]

Imagine, initially I misspelled Balfour's name.

I don't think I would have read the article about him if its tile had not included the word paradox. It is a word that always gets my attention.

Paradox is also applicable to the theme of issue 81 in which the Balfour article appears. The theme is metaphysics, a category of paradoxes and confusion which examines opposites, the fundamentals and complexity of the world, sometimes at cross purposes.

I wonder if sometime we should publish an issue of Philosophy Now with a theme of paradoxes? That might be fun.

Prof. Mark Sainsbury once wrote a great little book on different sorts of paradox. It was slightly notorious for including as an example an unbeatable chat-up line; ie a way of inviting somebody out which they couldn't refuse without falling into logical inconsistency. I can't remember how that worked and seem to have lost my copy of the book. (Probably borrowed by somebody who wanted to try out the unbeatable chat-up line!)

[spike]

rick,

An issue about paradoxes would be most interesting. It's a bind-blowing subject.

I best got to understand the paradox through linguistics. As a writer explained, paradox is the 'child of polarity', "a linguistic construct by which we give expression to our polarized human experience". In literature it furnishes creative tension, as Shakespeare did in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet called Romeo a "beautiful tyrant", a paradoxical phrase in which "logically we see the contradiction, but in the tension between the two words we understand Juliet's state of mind".

As my linguistic text explained: "Professor David Pichaske defines paradox as the 'schizophrenic presentation' of two or more possibilities, each of which has equal claim to validity."

No subject could be more revealing and defining about us or the world.

[Richard Baron]

a way of inviting somebody out which they couldn't refuse without falling into logical inconsistency.

But once he or she has fallen into inconsistency, he or she can prove anything, including (1) that it is acceptable to fall into inconsistency, and (2) that it would be much more fun to stay in and re-arrange one's sock drawer.

[spike]

An inconsistency in character, if carried and balanced right, can add style and a coolness to a persona. It can have an enigmatic quality.