"One of the early presidents of Harvard College wrote a dissertation on the question, "Whether angels speak any language; if so, whether it is Hebrew." Much futile discussion on such questions has at various times brought debating into ill repute. A question should offer something more than an ingenious exercise; it should offer the chance of arriving at some conclusion regarded by the particular audience or disputants as of some practical importance. It should be discarded if, like the proposition, "The pen is mightier than the sword/' it offers no possibility of arriving at reasonably sound conclusions through the process of argument."
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Educators from the United StatesColumbia University alumniHarvard University alumniEconomists from the United StatesPeople from Boston
Original Language: English
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p. 4-5; as cited in: Branham (2013, p. 32-33)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Trufant_Foster
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William Trufant Foster
(January 18, 1879 – October 8, 1950), was an American educator and economist, whose theories were especially influential in the 1920s. He was the first president of Reed College.
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