September 02, 2007

Immanuel Kantzendine

Steven Gross sent in this quotation from Kant's Lectures on Ethics (p. 202 of the Cambridge Translation):

"Just as practical taciturnity is an excess on the one side, so is loquacity on the other. The first is a male shortcoming, the second a female one. Some writer has said that women are talkative, because the upbringing of infants is entrusted to their care, and that by reason of their chattiness they soon teach children to talk, since they are able to keep babbling to them all day long; among men, however, it would take the children much longer to speak."

This much is consistent with the gospel according to (folks like) Louann Brizendine. Kant continues:

"Taciturnity is an odious habit. We are irritated by people who say nothing. They betray a sort of pride. Loquacity in men breeds contempt, and is unbecoming to their strength."

Posted by Mark Liberman at September 2, 2007 07:02 AM