How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908), ch. III, “The Suicide of Thought” (public domain, Project Gutenberg #130).public domain
The Thought That Stops Thought
AnthropologyArgument · power 94 · 100% accurateIn the gameThe sceptic says he has a right to think for himself, and Chesterton agrees. Then he watches the sceptic go on to doubt his own right to think at all. There is a thought that stops thought, and it is the only thought that ought to be stopped.
Strong against
×4The Complete Sceptican argument · why?
Chesterton met this man in 1908 and gave him his due. He has a right to think for himself. But the complete sceptic ends up saying he has no right to think at all, which is a thought that stops thought, and the only one that ought to be stopped.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
“The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908), ch. III, “The Suicide of Thought” (public domain, Project Gutenberg #130).public domain
The Old Virtues Gone Mad
AnthropologyArgument · power 84 · 100% accurateIn the gameChesterton’s diagnosis of the age, in eleven words. The modern world is not short of good things. It is full of them, cut loose from what held them, and running wild.
“A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908), ch. III, “The Suicide of Thought” (public domain, Project Gutenberg #130).public domain
Doubtful About Himself, Sure of the Truth
AnthropologyArgument · power 82 · 100% accurateIn the gameA man is supposed to be humble about himself and confident about what is true. Chesterton says the age has turned that round. People are now sure of themselves and unsure whether anything is true.
“The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908), ch. II, “The Maniac” (public domain, Project Gutenberg #130).public domain
Everything Except His Reason
AnthropologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurateIn the gameThe madman, Chesterton says, is not a man who has lost his reason. He has kept it and lost everything else: the sense of proportion, the humour, the sense that he might be wrong. A theory can be complete, unanswerable and mad.
Strong against
×2.5Nothing Outside the Textan argument · why?
Chesterton says the madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason. A theory with no fixed meaning can be complete and unanswerable, and still be a man talking to himself in a locked room.
