Discusiones bizantinas / Quibbling

Abstract

The article examines the practice of quibbling. Generally considered as ridiculous or inconvenient, it is however very frequent in human exchanges, in particular in argument. The paper first pays attention to the relations between quibbling and both truthfulness and accuracy. According to B. Williams, they would be the two major virtues constantly arbitrating our relations with truth, but according to modalities which are historically and contextually changing. Although it has many faces, a sharp requirement of exactitude is at the core of our concern when we quibble. On the other hand, compromises with sincerity can be found. A second part of the paper is a sketch of the pragmatic modalities in which one can consider that someone, oneself or someone else, is committed to quibble, a process that is capital for the quibbler but pathetic the audience