To suppose that "I know" is a descriptive phrase, is only one example of the descriptive fallacy, so common in philosophy. Even if... some language is now purely descriptive, language was not in origin so, and much of it is still not so. utterance of obvious ritual phrases, in the appropriate circumstances, is not describing the action we are doing, but doing it ("I do"): in other cases it functions, like tone and expression, or again like punctuation and mood, as an intimation that we are employing language in a special way ("I warn," "I ask," "I define"). Such phrases cannot, strictly, be lies, though they can "imply" lies, as "I promise" implies that I fully intend, which may be true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
They had supposed their formula was fixed. They had obeyed instructions to devise... A type of cold, a type of hooded gaze. But when the Negroes came they were perplexed. These Negroes looked like men....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Children's bodies aren't like automobiles with the assailant's fingerprints lingering on the wheel. The world of sexual abuse is q...uintessentially secret. It is the perfect crime.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The sounds are: the brisk swish of broom on tatami matting, the raucous cawing of hooded crows in a nearby willow grove; clickety-... clackety rattle of chattering housewives, a sound like briskly plied knitting needles, for Japanese is a language full of Ts and Ks; and, in the mornings, the crowing of a cock.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Aeneas carried his aged father on his back from the ruins of Troy and so do we all, whether we like it or not, perhaps even if we ...have never known them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »