On Wed, 13 May 2009 08:04:01 -0700, Michael Sylvester, Ph.D. wrote: >This question appeared on HOW TO BE A MILLIONAIRE: WORTH $25,000
Y'know, quiz shows are a lousy place to get facts, factoids, or quotes. >Who did Darwin refer to when he said that this person was "like a blind >man in a dark room looking for a black cat that does not exist"? >A. physicist >B. astronomer >C.archaeologist >D.mathematician E. No one Why? Because Darwin would have had to originate the quote to hace it attributed to him. Consider the following from the Wikiquote website: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin |A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which |isn't there. | This is attributed, with an expression of doubt as to its correctness, in Mathematics, |Our Great Heritage : Essays on the Nature and Cultural Significance of Mathematics |(1948) by William Leonard Schaaf, p. 163; also attributed in Pie in the Sky : |Counting, Thinking and Being (1992). There are a number of similar expressions to |this with various attributions, but the earliest published variants seem to be quotations |of Lord Bowen: | |When I hear of an 'equity' in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark | room - looking for a black hat - which isn't there. |Lord Bowen, as quoted in in Pie Powder", Being Dust from the Law Courts: |Collected and Recollected on the Western Circuit, by a Circuit Tramp (1911) |by John Alderson Foote; this seems to be the earliest account of any similar |expression. It is mentioned by the author that this expression has become misquoted |as a "black cat" rather than "black hat." | |With his obscure and uncertain speculations as to the intimate nature and causes |of things, the philosopher is likened to a 'blind man in a dark room looking for a |black cat that is not there.' |William James, himself apparently quoting someone else's expression, in Some |Problems of Philosophy : A Beginning of an Introduction to Philosophy (1911) |Ch. 1 : Philosophy and its Critics | |A blind man in a dark room seeking for a black cat - which is not there. |A definition of metaphysics attributed to Lord Bowen, as quoted in Science from |an Easy Chair (1913) by Edwin Ray Lankester, p. 99 | |A blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there. |A definition of metaphysics attributed to Lord Balfour, as quoted in God in |Our Work: Religious Addresses (1949) by Richard Stafford Cripps, p. 72 | |A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't |there. A theologian is the man who finds it. |H. L. Mencken, as quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) |by Laurence J. Peter, p.. 427 | |A metaphysician is like a blind man in a dark room, looking for a black cat - |which isn't there. |Variant published in Smiles and Chuckles (1952) by B. Hagspiel >Please swear that you did not research the answer.Winners get paid in >Zimbabwe Aw shucks, Michael! Just because you don't believe in scholarship or actually establishing the facts of a matter before you speak of it doesn't mean that everyone is like that. Sometimes people like to have something more solid than hearsay or quiz show jabber. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] dollars. --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
