Never Let Yourself Be Goaded
September 30, 2009
“Never let yourself be goaded into taking seriously problems about words and their meanings. What must be taken seriously are questions of fact, and assertions about facts; theories and hypotheses; the problems they solve; and the problems they raise.” – Karl Popper, Unended Quest, An Intellectual Autobiography Routledge Classic, 1992. New York This would be comment on philosophical writing of course, but ‘Never let yourself be goaded’, is a wonderful suggestion, and given the shortishness of our lives, I would endorse the idea that not taking seriously problems about words and their meanings, rather than problems about what the words signify is sound advice.