How to deal with people who make rational discussion impossible

Eric Voegelin in his discussion of Plato's Gorgias says something that is highly relevant to our current situation:

The condition of Socrates touches upon a problem, familiar to all of us who have had experience with rightist or leftist intellectuals. Discussion is indeed impossible with a man who is intellectually dishonest, who misuses the rules of the game, who by irrelevant profuseness seeks to avoid being nailed down on a point, and who gains the semblance of victory by exhausting the time which sets an inevitable limit to a discussion. The only defense possible against such practices is the refusal to continue the discussion: and this refusal is socially difficult because it seems to violate the rules of comity and the freedom of speech.
--Eric Voegelin, Plato and Aristotle, p. 26.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 15, 2008 01:47 PM | Comment | Send