Squaring the circle To square a circle is a common metaphor describing a futile attempt to solve the unsolvable. But a glance at the root of this metaphor may prove instructive. Since ancient times, geometricians have tried to construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with a compass and straightedge. Without going into the details, outside this author’s competence anyway, the challenge was invalidated as per the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem, which proved that pi (π) is a transcendental rather than algebraic irrational number. If conservatism (a word that discomfits me somewhat) were an attitude to existence based on a yearning for truth and if, as Plato and his twentieth century exegete Eric Voegelin argued, truth were not a doctrine, but rather a loving quest for harmonious relations among mortals and the divine, then neither would conservatism qualify for a doctrine, any more than truth. I take these propositions not merely as hypothetical, but rather, as commonsense-wise, "just so." Conservatives should in that case heave a sigh of relief because in being other than a doctrine, conservatism, supposing that one kept the word in usage, must likewise be other than an ideology. Ideologues of every stripe not only can explain – they in fact eagerly leap from the start to explain – who they take themselves to be and in what, passionately, they believe. The passion counts more for them than the specific content of any belief, but the themes, such as equality and tolerance, are consistent. Liberal loquacity, once let out the gate, has a nightmarish way of never shutting itself up.From Meccania to Atlantis Part 8 – Drenched to the Bone
Gudrid Thorbjorn's Daughter: A Conservative Instance
Sunday, 22 February 2009
From the desk of Takuan Seiyo on Thu, 2009-02-19 17:06
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From the desk of Thomas F. Bertonneau on Sat, 2009-02-21 15:52
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