Some readings

“Pragmatism. [William] James says that we shall know a truth by relating its consequences to its avowed purpose. Something is true, not because it has been repeated often, not because someone in authority has said it, not because it copies the world outside in every detail, not because it has been deducted from an infallible generality; but because it leads as accurately as possible to the kind of result that we have in mind. Pragmatism, in other words, takes a stand in opposition to the genetic fallacy, which bade us lok at the antecedent of a thing, in institution, or an idea in order to discover its worth. 1941” Jacques Barzun, The Jacques Barzun Reader

The “genetic fallacy” is the fallacy of irrelevance of judging a claim based on a previous similar context that may, or may not be, one in which the same claim’s terms may actually have already been applied. “Genetic” comes from “genus,” a reference to taxonomy where, in the context of logic, the “species” that is the claim is presumed to possess the same characteristics of every other characterstic within the same “genus,” which is the taxonomic tier directly above, or encompassing, the “species,” by virtue of being descended from the same genus. Therefore, the genetic fallacy assumes that the species that is the claim to possess, or to yield the same consequences, as the genus by virtue of it being descended from the genus. In short, a genetic fallacy is committed when a claim is based on its origin. An example is, “To possess the title ‘couple’ is a real shame because it’s just another form of ownership,” or better yet, “Love is conditional when you call each other ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend.’” The cuteness is nauseating in its endlessness. Yet however numerous I’ve committed the genetic fallacy myself, a cousin fallacy is what I am most embarassed of: the etymological fallacy. I have always pondered too late afterwards the validity of “continental philosophy’s” claims, especially those of Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger, who once proposed that the German language should be the master language because Germany was in the center of Europe and that it was more original than the other major Western languages because unlike the Romance languages it did not derive from a “mother language,” or so I’ve read in summary. To feel my embarrassment, just open the first page of Being and Time or Of Grammatology . . .

But to turn the page, an excerpt from something so charming I found in “the little book” I am ashamed to have gone on so long into life without:

“Some nouns that appear to be plural are usually construed as singular and given a singular verb.

Politics is an art, not a science.
The Republican Headquarters is on this side of the tracks.

But

The general’s quarters are across the river.

In these cases the writer must simply learn the idioms. The contents of a book is singular. The contents ofa jar may be either singular or plural, depending on what’s in the jar—jam or marbles.” William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style

And I can't get enough of the vindication . . .

One time biking through discomfort.

The saddest photo I've seen in my readings on the recent Japan disaster.