The wish to be right stems from self-preservation, which philosophy must break down
Evidence
Nothing is more unfitting for an intellectual resolved on practising what was earlier called philosophy, than to wish, in discussion, and one might almost say in argumentation, to be right. The very wish to be right, down to its subtlest form of logical reflection, is an expression of that spirit of self-preservation which philosophy is precisely concerned to break down. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 83
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A radical reframing of the very aim of argument: winning is a symptom of self-preservation, and philosophy’s task is to dismantle it. Dense enough to sit with.
- APHORISMS: Practical counsel for living: when philosophers converse they should try to lose the argument, convicting their opponent of untruth — a genuine form of life guidance.
- XREF: connects to: Formal logic’s either-or structure derives from the compulsion of self-preservation. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 47; Enlightenment reason is fundamentally a project of self-preservation through mastery of nature; Self-domination destroys the very subject self-preservation aims to save — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 62 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Self-domination destroys the very subject self-preservation aims to save
#expands(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 62 - Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity
#expands(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63 - Evil can be resisted because self-preservation remains a choice.
#qualifies(0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 594