The Aristos

INTRODUCTION

1 The book you are about to begin is written in the form of notes. This is not laziness on my part, but an attempt to suppress all rhetoric, all persuasion through style. Many of the notes are dogmatic expressions of opinion; and here, similarly, my intention is not to bludgeon into belief, but to banish all possibility of persuasion by artificial means. I do not want my ideas to be liked merely because they are likeably presented; I want them to be liked in themselves.

2 This is not a dialogue, but only one side of a dialogue. I state; you, if you wish, refute.

3 Some of what I say suffers from the usual defect of speculation and generalization; there is no proof. What proof there is lies in your agreement; what disproof, in your disagreement. Many modern philosophers would claim that unverifiable statements are scientifically meaningless; but I cannot agree that philosophy is, or will ever be, only a science.*[2]

4 I am a poet first; and then a scientist. That is a biographical fact, not a recommendation.

5 I believe in the essential sanity of man, and what follows is a memorial to that belief.