> People who are skeptical rarely make waves (unless they take their skepticism to extremes).
That's another case of "universalizing their idea".
> I'm not sure where this leaves us. Maybe every "great thinker" is a mountebank?
Almost certainly every "great thinker" who tortures the evidence to make it fit their theory is a mountebank, whether or not their views have some utility. Girard's total lack of honesty with his "evidence" makes him a mountebank.
That's another case of "universalizing their idea".
> I'm not sure where this leaves us. Maybe every "great thinker" is a mountebank?
Almost certainly every "great thinker" who tortures the evidence to make it fit their theory is a mountebank, whether or not their views have some utility. Girard's total lack of honesty with his "evidence" makes him a mountebank.