the William James passage

I’m not sure it always passes so cleanly from one stage to the next; there is plenty of overlap in many cases. But the basic point remains true:

“All new doctrine goes through three stages. It is attacked and declared absurd; then it is admitted as true and obvious but insignificant. Finally, its true importance is recognized and its adversaries claim the honor of having discovered it.”

The last point here is the one at issue. And I’m not even talking about the Derrida controversy: I’ve now noticed at least two semi-anonymous people in the blogosphere who claim they thought up the idea of OOO themselves before ever hearing of us. (!) I guess it doesn’t matter too much as long as they start working on the right things. If it ever gets to the point of a true struggle over priority, then of course that will be an excellent sign.