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Originally posted by BRussell: Who was is that said "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds?" I disagree with that - I do think consistency is important. But I think sometimes inconsistency is sometimes superficial, and used as a rhetorical device. |
Gonna take up the opposite side of the argument: sure consistency is important, and sure sometimes it's superficial. But sometimes holding completely disparate things in one's mind at once (insofar as one can) is essential for understanding something more completely.
The idea is not unlike the power of a metaphor: in yoking together two disparate things one acquires strength in description, power, even poetry.
The knowledge comes perhaps from the contrast: so, unlike Lerk, I will say there is rarely a synthesis of ideas that clash, since everything interesting about the juxtaposition is erased when ideas get smoothed over into each other.
Nice thread.