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The Lesbian Rule1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009
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The problem with which I wish to deal in this paper is the problem of singular reasons in the humanities, whether they exist, or rather, whether they can exist: for it would seem that the word “reason” carried with it some idea of generality, so that the phrase “singular reason” was a contradiction in terms, a specification which could never be fulfilled. But humanists are always sensing the singularity of their studies: and the philosopher wondering about the nature of humane thinking either must conclude that it is really only inadequate science, its singularity being the mark of the fact that we never really have an adequate basis for any of our generalizations, an unfortunate reminder that the whole structure is built on the shakiest of inductive foundations; or, if he is unwilling to allow that humanists are just bad, or at least amateur, scientists, he is tempted to vindicate the rationality of their reasoning by inventing a special faculty of particular ratiocination which is able to perceive particular truths—the intuition of the moralists or the insight of the Collingwoodian mode.
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- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1955
References
page 196 note 1 Rep. iv 425 b7–427 a7.
page 197 note 1 Enquiry Concerning Morals, Sect. I. ed. Selby-Bigge § 134.
page 198 note 1 Hare, R. M.: Language of Morals: pp. 129–133.Google Scholar
page 200 note 1 Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Bk. VI: 13: 5, 1144b 26–7 “Not according to the right rule but still with right reason.”
page 204 note 1 phaedo, 101 e i, amended, and slightly out of context.
page 205 note 1 R. M. Hare: Language of Morals, p. 156.
page 205 note 2 R. M. Hare: Language of Morals, p. 52.
page 205 note 3 P. H. Nowell-Smith: Ethics, p. 309.
page 208 note 1 Pol. 294 C7–8 “What is altogether simple cannot fit well things that are never simple.”
page 209 note 1 Hegel: The Spirit of Christianity, § 3 p. 295. tr. Hegel's Early Theological Writings, p. 246.
I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. W. H. Walsh, Fellow of Merton, for bringing this passage to my notice.
page 211 note 1 General Topology: by Waclaw Sierpińksi. tr. Toronto 1934 (Ist edition only), p. 16, § 10.
page 213 note 1 Essay on the Human Understanding. Bk. IV: ch. 3: § 18.
page 213 note 2 S. N. Hampshire: Analysis 1950. Multiply General Propositions.
page 213 note 3 Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Bk. V: 10: 7, 1137 b29–31.
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