Notes on Punctuation By Lewis Thomas There are no precise rules about punctuation (Fowler lays out some general advice (as best he can under the complex circumstances of English prose (he points out, for example, that we possess only four stops (the comma, the semicolon, the colon and the period (the question mark and exclamation […]
Lewis Thomas’s classic-fun “Notes on Punctuation” Read More »
To what extent is bad writing style, particularly bad academic style, a result of (a) poor skill, (b) affectation, (c) imitation, or (d) a tool to conceal the meaning and implications of one’s ideas? Heinrich Heine here lambasts many of his fellow intellectuals: “Distinguished German philosophers who may accidentally cast a glance over these pages
Heine versus Nietzsche on obscurantism in philosophy Read More »
Reprising this post from 2016, using this very clear and representative list of experiences that one can check off or not. Some are positive, others are irritating, and some are infuriating for those who experience them. The purpose of the list is (in part) to help one realize how good/challenged/frustrated/damaged one’s life is. But note
*Privilege* as a bundled anti-concept Read More »
Image of the letter and a transcription below: Fallowfield, Manor Road, Penn, Buckinghamshire, England. April 28th, 1970 Dear Professor Aron, Many thanks for your letter of April 15th. I can only say that when I read either Adorno or Habermas, I feel as if lunatics were speaking. I have translated some of their German sentences
Popper to Aron: letter on Adorno and Habermas Read More »
Linguistically fascinating: In Canadian English there are three distinct sounds – oo, ou, ow – but American English hears and speaks only two of them. Canadians say ow as in brown, ou as in house, and oo as in soon. But Americans pronounce house, south, and about more like howse, sowth, and abowt. And their
Canadian versus American English Read More »
… or the frustratingly-complicated English language, depending on your mood. Here’s the example: Discussing the minimum wage issue with some students, I found myself saying, “With a minimum wage, employers will have to pay more than they would have had to have paid in a free market.” Snip: “… they would have had to have
The magnificent English language — subjunctive version Read More »