AN EARLY BUT IRRITATING FAMILY ARGUMENT

when he was a child in the middle of a family filming he burped ... not an ordinary burp mind you but an extended list of premises ending in a conclusion and all in german though he spoke but his native tongue american english ... this was just after the end of the second world war and the language of the burp was still considered offensive ... the syllogism however was the main point of objection from the family and they held it against him thereafter ... they said that conclusion never could follow those premises according to the necessary must ... and if he meant to put them together with a might there never could be a right in it and certainly never any real may ... though of course he could if indeed he would ... naturally the boy was appalled by this modal declaration and he felt as well because they never did return to it that no proper argument had been given for their own conclusion critical of his which at least had gone to the trouble of presenting a series of precedents ... a rather long series ... which if anything might be incomplete ... that is too short ... but with an implied promise of more to come