Interdisciplinary Core Philosophy: Philosophical Issues, 18, 2008 Book

“Testimony of the poet goes for nothing. His object […] is not truth, but likelihood” (89) seems to be the most useful phrase for my own project here, but then again, the time period isn’t quite right. It is interesting to me that Campbell is often seen as an old fuddy-duddy (and those last several chapters on grammatical style and idioms are dauntingly stuffy), but he makes a good point that English can be just as rich a language as Latin. It reeks of empire, of course, but there’s also some right-to-language here, even if that language must be dominated by a certain social class that can be “reputable, national and present” (154).


–And that’s another thing, he sure makes a big deal about being present for someone who uses “hath” all the time…!