Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Wrongly Adduced

“We wrongly adduce the honour and beauty of an activity from its usefulness, and our conclusion is wrong if we reckon that all are bound to perform it, and that it is honourable for each to do so, provided it be useful.”

Michel de Montaigne, “On the Useful and the Honourable”, The Complete Essays, Bk.III:1, tr. & ed. M.A. Screech (London: Penguin Books, 1991), p.906.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4 December 2008 at 15:35

    We would also wrongly adduce the honour and beauty of an activity from its uselessness. From what should we adduce it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Deogolwulf4 December 2008 at 18:19

    By their own lights?

    ReplyDelete
  3. James Higham8 December 2008 at 14:42

    Yet what of the useless and beautiful? Should all beautiful things be useless?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8 December 2008 at 19:33

    Maybe beauty requires us to see usefulness differently.

    ReplyDelete

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