Intentional Fallacy

In 1881, Edward Payson Vining wrote an innovative book that promised to unravel The Mystery of Hamlet .  When Vining had weighed all the evidence, he came to the only reasonable conclusion: Hamlet was a woman.

Not, mind you, that Shakespeare conceived of a female prince: “It is not even claimed that Shakespeare ever fully intended to represent Hamlet as indeed a woman.  It is claimed that in the gradual evolution of the feminine element in Hamlet’s character the time arrived when it occurred to the dramatist that so a woman might act and feel, if educated from infancy to play a prince’s part.”

This is taking suspicion of the intentional fallacy a bit far.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

How the State Failed Noelia Castillo

Itxu Díaz

On March 26, Noelia Castillo, a twenty-five-year-old Spanish woman, was killed by her doctors at her own…

The Mind’s Profane and Sacred Loves

Algis Valiunas

The teachers you have make all the difference in your life. That they happened to come into…

History’s Pro Tips on Iran

Francis X. Maier

Nothing in human experience compares to the wars of the last 120 years. Their scope has grown…