Wriggling, darting particulars

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0"It is true, there is a species of philosopher who plant a tiny seed of doubt in some susceptible crevice of your mind and nurses it along until a blighting skepticism of life has spread over the whole of your thinking. And there is the kind who pretends to conjure the ultimate of reality from an item of personal experience. And of course there is the more common variety, the one who angles in the quite waters of speculative meditation for abstract ideas which he can mount and proudly exhibit 01u01font00in disparagement of 01b00the wriggling, darting particulars02b00 whose habitat is the current of events02font00.02u00"02br02br00Please help me to understand what the author means by the blue phrase, especially by "the wriggling, darting particulars."02br02br00Thank you.02br02br00Cadzao0-

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

0 01blockquote

00the more common variety, the one who angles in the 11del~~10quite12del~~10 11font10quiet12font10 waters of speculative meditation for abstract ideas which he can mount and proudly exhibit 11u11font10in disparagement of 11b10the wriggling, darting particulars12b10 whose habitat is the current of events12font10.12u10"12blockquote

10The statement is built on a fishing metaphor. The words 01i00angles02i00 (fishes), 01i00waters, mount02i00 (display a caught fish, preserved as a trophy), 01i00wriggling02i00 (squirming like a caught fish), 01i00darting02i00 (quick swimming movements), and 01i00current02i00 (stream, river) are crucial to maintaining the metaphor. With that as background, the 01i00particulars02i00 are analogous to fish.02br
02br
00 So the passage is about a certain kind of philosopher who generates abstract ideas through a meditative process and shows off these ideas (in his writing), all the while showing disdain and disregard of the details (particulars) of the events of the real world -- details which would be much more difficult to handle in a less abstract philosophy (as a wriggling, darting fish would be difficult to handle).02br
02br
00 CJ0-

Cadzao · Answer

0Thank you, CalifJim, for your detailed and helpful explanation. 02br
02br
00Cadzao0-

Wriggling, darting particulars

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