Wednesday
Jan252012
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Quote of the day
Jan 25, 2012 Climate: Sceptics A man may stand to gain a great deal of peace and quiet from telling his wife that he loves her. But he may really love her nonetheless.
Jamie Whyte on the motivational fallacy (H/T James D)
Reader Comments (17)
Does this have something to do with Chris Huhne ??
You obviously haven't met my wife.
FB
I think it's supposed to be special pleading for the GWPF. I am unmoved. Good quote though.
Apparently, some believe that the man has a duty to prove to his wife and all others that his expression of love is pure and not sullied by the least thought of peace and quiet.
Lame of me, I know, but I had thought that the impossibility of proving such purity had been established centuries ago and that the very concept of such purity had been banished from all but "romance" novels.
Marriage is a lot like keeping a horse: for a small amount of pleasure you have to shovel a lot of
JF
The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets that she took him...
-- Oscar Wilde
Julian Flood
Marriage is a lot like keeping a horse: for a small amount of pleasure you have to shovel a lot of ...
Ever watched -- or worse yet been directly involved in -- a divorce?
I have watched five or six and avoided thankfully avoided my own. Not a recommended activity.
"I have watched five or six and avoided thankfully avoided my own. Not a recommended activity."--Don Pablo de la Sierra
Marriage? Or divorce? Owning a horse? Or shoveling out the stable?
"It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house." Proverbs 25:24
Divorce is liberation. Waiting for divorce is limbo. Waiting for divirce that depends upon sale of a house in the worst market in history while living with her is hell.
Mark
jorgekafkazar
The Irish have a saying: "Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?" I can not differentiate between the various activities you list, but I can between doing them and not doing them. I prefer to not doing them, particularly the last one.
"You never really know a woman until you meet her in court" - Norman Mailer
"The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing, and then they marry him" - Cher
You may say things because you are paid to. You may believe them anyway. Barristers for instance, may genuinely believe in the guilt or innocence of the person for or against whom they are arguing. We never suppose when questioning the arguments offered by a barrister that by pointing out that he or she is paid to make them, we can discredit the arguments. To do that we have to argue coherently on the issues.
The same is true in climate. The warmist lobby is fond of arguing, when confronted with a difficult argument, that its proponents only believe it because..... When it does not matter why they believe it, what matters is whether its correct.
Marriage is a social institution. Children need fathers. Fidelity is a duty, sometimes a difficult one, and should our partners fall from grace, we should not overreact. It is not a duty to leave someone who has erred.
It is a matter, as the marriage service says in different words, of deciding and making the best of it. If approached with this clear idea, one's approach will be much more likely to be successful.
The idea that success comes from picking the right person, and that if one is unhappy the answer is throw them back and pick another, is generally false. There are exceptions, there are abusive marriages, there are relationships that really should not persist. Loving someone is what we do. We should not be looking into our hearts and wondering if we love, we should be asking ourselves whether having decided to love, we are doing it.
“We should not be looking into our hearts and wondering if we love, we should be asking ourselves whether having decided to love, we are doing it.”
Beautifully put, Michel. It’s far to easy to take partners for granted, when a bit of appreciation can yield great returns.
to/too/two - I know!
Uplifting because true. Thanks michel.
Btw, the motivational fallacy is often (if not formally) referred to as the genetic fallacy, a sub-type of argumentum ad hominem (an informal fallacy). Genetic meaning the source of the belief/argument should be questioned, regardless of its veracity.
Mark