general_re wrote:
I've always been a fan of inherently self-contradictory propositions, myself - one is left to wonder how we arrived at the conclusion that history is a better guide in political affairs than reason, if not through the application of reason itself. Divine inspiration? Those damned universal truths... ;)History has its part to play as it illustrates what in the course of events worked and what didn't work.
Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe's guiding principle was that of "intelligence guided by experience."
That doesn't seem to be such a bad prescription to me.
Me either. Perhaps the author of "rationalism in politics leads quickly to Jacobinism" might consider a slight revision ;)