Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Argh, argh, argh. Scott Adams got me! I…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Argh, argh, argh. Scott Adams got me! I mocked the imperfect questioner and questioned the Socrates character, and now I find out that this Daily Cal reviewer got the point, and I didn't. Adams was, it seems, deliberately playing with the form of the Socratic dialogue, challenging the reader to herself question the traditionally infallible Socrates character and "think for herself." Cyrus Farivar writes,
Adams twists an ancient tradition of passive Socratic questioning by inviting the reader to directly question the paradox that Avatar is omniscient though he speaks in false syllogisms.
No wonder he had so many fallacious arguments -- that was Adams's intention. Great. I feel had. I shouldn't, but I do.
