Saturday 14 November 2020

Six Philosophical Stones: A Kind of Menmonic

 

Six Philosophical Stones 

1.      Flint stone: the ignition of sparks of new ideas, images and feelings through percussive or explosive blows. A powerful and dramatic argument that startles, shocks and awakens the audience to new ways of looking things

2.      Mill stone: the grinding down of an undifferentiated mass of worn-out and undifferentiated material, the separation of the meaningful and useful from the insignificant and irrelevant. A meticulous, well-documented argument that builds up to its climax with a steady hand and clear voice.

3.      Touch stone: the juxtaposition and frictional contiguity that leads to the exposure of unseen qualities, textures and tones, and differentiates the real from the phoney, pure gold from fool’s gold. A critical comparative approach that gradually wears away the obfuscations, jargon-ridden terms of the old point of view.

4.      Corner stone: the foundation of a structure, marking its point of origin and its antecedents. Without this, all else in an argument topples over. Everything is balanced and orderly

5.      Key stone: the connecting link between symmetrical or contrasting images, ideas and passions. Working from different angles, which at first seem to be unrelated to one another, the argument leads towards a highpoint that illuminates everything around it.

6.      Load stone: a magnet that draws out a whole series of analogies, examples and applications. An argument by way of analogy, logical progression, revealed inferences and nuanced connections.

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