30 October, 2006

A round peg in a square hole?

One of the most fascinatingly elaborate ad hominem back-and-forths I've ever read, on. . . squaring the circle? Notice that all the substantive points were covered in the first 15 or so comments, by me among several others, though as usual I was completely ignored.
I really think that the intellectual world could do with much less comity. . . It’s just liberal arts bullshit anyway, and it will all come out in the wash.
John Emerson, at the above thread. My man!

3 comments:

John Cowan said...

Well, I tried to read it, but it quickly became an ad hominem flamefest, so I lost interest.

Seriously, where is the fascination in such things? I don't get it. They may be slightly better than counting your toes over and over on a rainy day, but not much.

Conrad H. Roth said...

"Where is the fascination...?"

Oh, the pettiness and petulance, the mock-aloofness, the patterns of rhetoric and abuse, occasionally witty, the earnest but futile attempts to get the thread back on topic; it's like a human petri-dish.

Andrew W. said...

That seems to happen a fair bit over there, and appears to involve the same five people.

Let's just hope no one tells the poster about the axiom of inifinty!