Why Are Philosophers Hard to Understand? (Part IV)

The Power of Elemental Words

Last week, I offered some some hypotheses about why philosophers are hard to understand.

One further possibility is that some philosophers intentionally cultivate an an oracular quality.

Oracular words tend to be ambiguous, layered, rich.

The cynical reason for this is that “polysemy” (many meanings) allows the oracle to hedge, and thus to be right no ma…