Saturday, December 22, 2012

Le comte de Paris

In his essay that launched a long and fruitful line of inquiry concerning presupposition and scope of negation, Bertrand Russell introduced sentences like “The King of France is bald” or (trickier)  “The King of France is not bald”;  these, one could argue, are neither true nor false, since the subject of the sentence fails of reference, there being in fact no King of France to bear any quality or fail to bear them.  (This spectral figure was, then, an early example of a Mann ohne Eigenschaften.)

It turns out that, though there is not  at present  a recognized King of France, there is indeed a Count of Paris, and he is the leading pretender to the throne.  His name is Henri d'Orléans, and despite having reached the enviable age of 79, he still has all his hair.

And today, the leading conservative newspaper in France published a portrait and an interview with this estimable individual, which you can savor here.   The proceedings begin somewhat inauspiciously, leading off with an oddly provocative question:

LE FIGARO. - Vous êtes opposé au mariage pour tous. Vivez-vous donc, selon l'expression utilisée par la garde des Sceaux vis-à-vis d'un député hostile à la réforme, «dans un igloo»?

The Count politely denies that such be his dwelling, and proceeds to inform us what’s wrong with the world.
 

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Pour d’autres friandises
de la confiserie 
du docteur Justice,
consultez:

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