I thought this was just awesome. I found it on Dylan Dodd's website.
"Those who deny such manifest things need punishment..., for as Avicenna puts it: "Those who deny a first principle should be beaten or exposed to fire until they concede that to burn and not to burn, or to be beaten and not to be beaten, are not identical." And so to, those who deny that some being is contingent should be exposed to torments until they concede that it is possible for them not to be tormented."Duns Scotus, Reportatio I A prol. q. iii. art. i
I also think that Dodd's daughter's response to modal realism was apt.
Well, coffee with Scotus and Parmenides sure would be fun...
Perhaps Thomas Reid was a little more humane:
"We may observe that opinions which contradict first principles, are distinguished, from other errors, by this:-That they are not only false but absurd; and, to discountenance absurdity, Nature has given us a particular emotion-to wit, that of ridicule-which seems intended for this very purpose of putting out of countenance what is absurd, either in opinion or practice." (Essays on the Intellectual Powers VI.iv)
Thanks, Trent. I've quoted that to students before (who loved it, of course) but I'd lost the ref. Now I know I can chalk it up to the original Dunce. :-)
- an unoriginal dunce