Saturday, October 18, 2008
Back amongst my old books
We are told, by Coleridge, that all philosophers are either Platonists or Aristotelians; by Gilbert, that all girls and boys are either liberals or conservatives, and, by popular rumor, that all human beings are either girls or boys.
These statements are clearly oversimplified, and are rhetorical rather than factual: they are designed to give us some perspective on the shape of a big subject, not to tell us the truth about it.
from A Natural Perspective
by Northrop Frye
These statements are clearly oversimplified, and are rhetorical rather than factual: they are designed to give us some perspective on the shape of a big subject, not to tell us the truth about it.
from A Natural Perspective
by Northrop Frye