SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Raymond Duray who wrote (45374)12/24/2003 11:47:05 PM
From: JEB  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 50167
 
To me it is useless to read about Rousseau unless first you read something of his life. He seems to me to be a bundle of contradictions -- a sort of frustrated man who was constantly changing professions and localities through fear or similar motive; but who discovered that he had a considerable facility in dealing with abstractions.

He read a number of ancient philosophers and historians and from this reading began to picture "the world as it ought to be."

While I never thought about it before, it is entirely possible that his writings have had far greater influence with our so-called "intelligensia" than would seem reasonable. By the way, did you ever hear that definition of a member of the intelligensia that runs, "One who uses more words than necessary to tell more than he knows."


07/20/1954, Letter to Brigadier General Bradford G. Chynoweth, President Dwight D. Eisenhower