Quoting David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>:
> Judy
> I always recall the joke about the great German philosopher who had
> distilled his teaching into three volumes: twenty years had passed by and
> volumes one and two had appeared but everyone was waiting for the third
> volume because all the verbs were in that.
Apropos... Richard Holmes in the current NYRB online discusses recent books on
Madame de Stael...[Goodden wrote one of them]:
The American traveler George Ticknor gave a memorably funny picture of her
working over the philosopher Fichte, and sorting out his entire metaphysical
system in less than "fifteen minutes or so." Goodden characteristically quotes at
length this piece of intellectual ping-pong, which de Staël ends with a
convincing smash:
Ah! c'est assez, je comprends parfaitement Monsieur Fichté. Your system is
perfectly illustrated by a story in Baron Munchausen's travels.
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