I've yet to get anyone to
>explicitly admit the nearly self-evident fact that intellectual life
>_has_ to be based on thousands of decisions re books one has not read.
>In fact, intellectual life would come to a screeching halt unless
>everyone involved, more or less consciously, regularly made decisions of
>the sort, "A notes that B notes that C notes that D is nor worth reading
>and that E is intellgent and writes well but is entirely mistaken."
The philosopher Hilary Putnam calls this fact "the intellectual division of labor."
jks
>
>Thought _begins_ with accepting the authority of others, then
>proceeding further within the framework established by acceptance of
>that authority.
>
That's Kuhn, among others.
jks
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