If you admit that to silence your opponent by force_x000D_ is to win an intellectual argument,_x000D_ then you admit the right to silence people by force.
Interpretation
Using force to silence someone undermines the integrity of an intellectual argument.
Hans Eysenck highlights a critical aspect of discourse and debate, emphasizing that resorting to force to silence an opponent signifies a troubling acceptance of coercion in intellectual discussions. This stance implies that if one justifies winning arguments through force, it opens the door to a broader acceptance of silencing dissenting voices, compromising the ideals of free and open dialogue.
In practice
During a debate on free speech, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of dialogue over coercion.
I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it. If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. Tact and diplomacy are fine in international relations, in politics, perhaps even in business; in science only one thing matters, and that is the facts.
Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.
I have died in so many spectacular ways, and I remember shooting them all, too. I imagine all those deaths will flash in front of me when I'm on my death bed, faced with the real thing.
There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as though a chink in the dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice agin, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things.
When you are not the doer how can the attachment happen? You do a small thing and you become attached. You say, "I have done this." You would like everybody to know that you have done this and you have done that. This ego is the barrier for the supreme understanding. Drop the doer and let things happen. That's what Tilopa means by being loose and natural.
If you don't understand how something works, never mind: just give up and say God did it. You don't know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don't understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don't go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God.
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