Birthright

“I'll try,” said Belore, “though I doubt that it will do much good. If you were to agree with me, then this

situation would never have arisen in the first place.” “Why not try us and see?” suggested Hillyar. “I intend to,” said Belore. “Let me begin by asking a couple of questions, if I may.” “Proceed,” said Brannot haughtily.

“Professor Brannot, what is the position of the Philosophy Department on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas?'’

“A brilliant primitive philosopher,” said Brannot. “Unmatched in his day, but definitely discredited.” “Discredited?” said Belore. “You mean his religious views and arguments?” “Yes.”

“Including the First Cause argument?”

“Certainly. It can be disproved with the set of all negative integers, the set of all proper fractions, the—” “I quite agree,” interrupted Belore. “What of Plato?” “We study him, of course. As Man's first great philosopher—” “He wasn't the first, but let it pass,” said Belore quietly. “Anyway, we do study him. But again, the man has been disproved, in practice as well as in theory, many times over. Why, the Bonite Colony of a couple of centuries ago was set up according to his Republic, and lasted only a handful of years.”

“Too many philosopher-kings and not enough streetcleaners, as I recall it,” said Belore. “How about the works of Braxtok of Canphor VII?'’

“He wasn't even a Man!” said Brannot.

“Does that make his view of the universe any less valid?” asked Belore. “Not at all,” said Hillyar hastily. “And, in fact, we do have a number of courses in alien philosophies.” “Oh?” asked Belore. “How many?”

“I haven't got the figures before me,” said Hillyar, “but there are quite a few.” “I had the figures before me a few hours ago,” said Belore. “I found seventeen. Seventeen out of more than six hundred.”

“I don't know what you're driving at,” said Brannot. “Simply this,” said Belore. “I've been going over the various doctoral theses that have been presented to