Meaning of counsel of despair | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A proposal or piece of advice that indicates one has given up on trying to fix a given obstacle or problem.
2. An action or decision that reflects the attitude behind such advice.

Equivalents

Examples

“Without holding any particular brief for a diet of Shelley, I would think⟳ it only a counsel of despair to say⟳ that the majority, or any sizable minority, of average intelligence can't be reached with the values of education, with some of the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of the race⟳, but must be shoved into "attractive" courses devoid of any real educational meat so they will be kept off the labor market or the streets.”

“But it is a counsel of despair. You say⟳ somebody else might do something to make⟳ themselves stronger, therefore we should not bother to look⟳ to our own⟳ security.”

“And so we might think⟳ that the dialogue offers little more politically than a counsel of despair. There seem to be only two options: either a wholesale reconstitution of the political, so that those with a true understanding of the good would replace⟳ the ignorant as wielders of political power (the ostensible solution of the Republic), or if that proves impossible or undesirable, a retreat from politics and an embrace of political quietism on the part of the philosopher.”

“Again, Agnosticism is “right” if it be a "counsel of honesty” ; wrong if it be a “counsel of despair.””

“If a man adopts an exceptional measure⟳ in a state of absolute extremity, that does not make⟳ it a fundamental article of his faith. It is a doctrine of despair, and he merely adopted it on that occasion as a counsel of despair, and when a Liberal and a democrat adopts an exceptional measure⟳ as a counsel of despar that does not constitute that measure⟳ in harmony either with Liberalism or democracy.”

“To take⟳ up the way of force⟳ was no doubt⟳ a counsel of despair.”

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