Reasonable notions

Ideally, he said, France is the one Western country where philosophy and literature, respectively, carry more weight than law and journalism.

I see, she replied. So you think you can expect that what people say actually needs to make sense, at least in matters of business and governance, such that you can draw the conclusions entailed by what people say, and expect them to be consistent?

But don't you see, she hastened to add, that we Americans think Reason was the god that oppressed us, and the irrational alone is freedom? 

Why, he retorted, should the festival annul the deductions that make it possible? Legend says that when there is no more crime or injustice, law will be inapplicable, not forgotten. Two and two will still make four; it will just seem less compelling to say so.