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Why don't people like lisp?

Bud Rogers budr at netride.net
Sun Oct 19 11:15:41 EDT 2003 
Frode Vatvedt Fjeld wrote:

> Kenny Tilton <ktilton at nyc.rr.com> writes:
> 
>> what is sophistry?
> 
> The story goes that in ancient Greece the sophists were recognized
> experts on public speaking, who took pride in being able to sway their
> audience into any point of view they liked, or got paid for. (Much
> like todays "spin doctors", I believe.) This in contrast to the
> philosophers, who were the experts on what is True, regardless of
> popularity or any pragmatics.
> 
> So sophistry usually means something like a lot of fancy talk that
> isn't very helpful in establishing what is true, or important, or
> right, or bestest of parens and white-space.
> 

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig discusses the
philosopher vs sophist debate and to some extent resurrects the honor of
the sophists.  According to Pirsig, the sophists thought the most important
question was 'What is Good?'.  The philosophers thought the more important
question was 'What is Truth?'.   The philosophers seem to have won the
debate, at least in the West.   And as they say, the victors write the
history books, so sophistry came to mean fancy arguments intended to evade
or obscure the truth.

For good or ill, the history of western civilization has been driven in
large part by that outcome.  In almost every field of human endeavor, we
have brilliant technical solutions to almost every problem.  All too often,
the solution only creates another problem.  A modern day sophist (a real
one, not the snake oil salemen who have inherited the name) might say with
a certain smugness, "A clever man will do what makes sense, even if it
isn't any good.  A wise man will do what is good, even if it doesn't make
any sense."

-- 
budr at netride dot net
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