Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
ANTONIN SCALIA'S ANTINOMY
ANTONIN SCALIA'S ANTINOMY
The late Antonin Scalia, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who died February 13, 2016, said something in an earlier televised book interview on CNN, about the "genius" of the Greeks "in Athens in 2,000 B. C.," during its commemorative replay, that I has just happened to see.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7bfhzqspKc
I was stunned, as well as informed, that such an erroneous historical declaration could issue from this man, this iconic "conservative" jurist, who had so long enjoyed a rich reputation as learned, even as erudite., without contradiction !
Homer, claimed by some to be the first literate Greek, author of wrote the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," lived about 700 B.C. Socrates , Plato, and Aristotle lived 300-400 years after Homer. Athens, the center for that irruption of that "genius," as claimed by Justice Scalia, did even not exist as such before 600 B.C.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_philosophy
If they were aware of this error, CNN's interviewer, Piers Morgan, said nothing, nor did Brian Garner, Justice Scalia's co-author, of their book, "Reading the Law;" neither did CNN'S anchor in Atlanta.
Either they were all ignorant of the actual historical facts respecting Greek "genius" or they were eliding the truth on national television !
Either way, I was amazed by the antinomy exhibited by Antonin Scalia whose alleged learning was legendary. "Reading the Law" and misstating the facts, antinomy yes!
ANTINOMY is irony, or contradiction, involving two independent predicates, which may be true separately but not jointly.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antinomy