Word: argumentativeness
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...remaining part of the article, which takes up the question of the evil influence of the Nation on the student mind, has so many of the peculiar faults of that journal, that it must necessarily have some of its excellences; but the argument is most curiously inconsistent. After condemning several student characteristics in a manner truly searching and Nationesque, the writer suddenly turns around and condemns that journal for the very faults which are most conspicious in his own article. He actually out Nations the Nation in pessimism, and then, probably remembering the Golden Rule, quotes the Nation's words...
...legitimate outcome of the doctrine of evolution is certainly superficial." Superficial writings have certainly the merit of being easily understood, and if such were here the case, the epithet would indeed be welcome; but this profound specialist seems to have failed to comprehend the whole bearing of the argument. The "elaborate application of Mr. Spencer's doctrine" consisted in a passing reference, seven lines in length, to prove that a modern specialist needs a highly differentiated mind. The rest of the argument - maintaining that specialization was not the object of an academic course, and thus accounting for our collegiate indifference...
...argument he reasons a posteriori, from a priori grounds, to put it paradoxically; for it is usually considered the first duty of an inductive reasoner to collect data, but this investigator shows a truly Spinozan disregard for mere facts. In order, therefore, to disentangle his argument from the maze of rhetorical rhapsody in which, like the fabled cuttle-fish of the deep, he shrouds his thought, an analysis is necessary. We find, then...
...proved. If this is the development of reason fished from the ultramarine depths of modern thought, we may save ourselves the trouble of classifying it; for it is an exceedingly nasty creature, and was known to our old-fogy ancestors under the name of gratuitous invective. However, such argument has the merit of being easily confuted. As the premises and the conclusions are identical, we suppress both by denying, with varying degrees of earnestness, all the former, - speaking comparatively, of course, with reference to any other secular college; for we should hesitate to predicate anything concerning the relation...
...conclusion, one cannot but be struck by the fundamental inconsistency of the argument. The object of intellectual life is to discover truth, - "the love of truth for the sake of truth." He admits that the Nation seeks and attains truth, both of fact and opinion, and then asserts that the influence of the Nation is bad, because, to act, we must delude ourselves into believing that things are better than they really are. He asserts that it is better to hold wrong opinions than to have our opinions corrected; in other words, the sole object of life is ideal truth...