Exploration Through Example

Example-driven development, Agile testing, context-driven testing, Agile programming, Ruby, and other things of interest to Brian Marick

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Mon, 06 Dec 2004

The prayer of every true partisan

From J.S. Mill, via Lionel Trilling, via John Holbo (in a discussion of one of Pragmatic Dave Thomas's alter ego's books), a "prayer of every true partisan of liberalism":

Lord, enlighten thou our enemies... sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions and consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom: their weakness is what fills us with apprehension, not their strength.

Trilling comments:

What Mill meant, of course, was that the intellectual pressure which an opponent... could exert would force liberals to examine their position for its weaknesses and complacencies.

Isn't that a nice sentiment? And not just for political partisans.

P.S. A duty to attend to an opponent's thought is not a duty to argue with that opponent. I've in the past shrugged and walked away from arguments. Citing this post won't shame me into resuming them.

## Posted at 11:35 in category [permalink] [top]