But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.--John Stuart Mill, from On Liberty
Dan Illman of FormBlog revealed that after considering arguments made in the comments section of his blog, he was convinced The Tin Man is more deserving of the Champion Turf Horse award than is Dan's initial choice of Aragorn.
you guys may have influenced me more than the other way around. At first, I was going to vote for Aragorn over The Tin Man for champion turf horse. After reading the intelligent posts concerning the division, and then going back over the past performances, I flip-flopped to The Tin Man.
That Dan's interaction in this forum made him more confident in his eclipse ballot, and even brought him to a new more defensible conclusion in one instance, is perhaps the greatest reason why discourse is supremely important. In matters of horse racing or politics, J.S. Mill had it right. Discourse is important. The collision of ideas yields truth and we should not stifle this collision.
5 comments:
Very interesting - and I like that you got to reference JSM!
I was a philosophy minor in college, which gave me just enough knowledge and understanding of the key works to be an asshole at cocktail parties. I was always a big fan of Bentham and Mill and I thought this was an ideal time to trot this li'l gem out.
The problem with philosophy minors is that you have to read their posts two and a half times to make sense of them!
Finally, someone in the media recognizes the old fella for the tough guy that he is! I just love that horse, thanks for the post!!!!!
@john, you cannot expect great philosophical minds to be constrained by readability.
@kj, yeah, i really dig that old fella. he brings it every time. he's the Perfect Drift that wins.
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