Posted on 05/15/2007 9:10:23 PM PDT by jazusamo
Ah heck...I don’t need no stinkin’ INCITEMENT to read more of his work...
I just need the TIME! (currently reading ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’...)
My esteem for his intellect, commonsense and ability to convey ideas clearly is higher than nearly any other author I have had the opportunity to read in the last couple of years...I will be taking the suggestions.
Perhaps he should have qualified it: “In no particular order.”
Must be he’s had a LOT of practice expressing himself!! Thanks for the ping.
I’m not sure I agree with Mr. Sowell’s use of the word ‘knowledge’ here as if it were a quantifiable thing, something one could measure in percentages.
For one thing, knowledge is not zero-sum. If I give you a quarter, I no longer have that money: that’s zero-sum. If I teach you what “labor omnia vincit” means, or how to make rice and beans, I don’t lose that knowledge myself.
Furthermore, if I were to explain to you in detail how the World Trade Center collapsed by itself, or some other falsehood, that would increase the volume of ‘what is known’, but not ‘what is true’.
He’s using an economic metaphor, and I admit my ignorance of the field, so the fault could be on me.
But here goes: if currency has value because it’s ‘backed up’ by something whose value can be agreed upon. What ‘backs up’ knowledge?
Having said that, I SO enjoy reading Thomas Sowell; his writing is always a banquet of great ideas, succinctly stated. He enriches us all.
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