Most important, it would be an intellectual tragedy.
This latter was amplified when, asked by a sympathetic senator, Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, why he wanted to serve on the Supreme Court, Judge Bork replied that it would be "an intellectual feast".
So if the new Spare Rib is the forum I always hoped it would be – accessible, intellectual, campaigning and far-sighted (the composition of the FTSE boards affects all of us, not just its gilded members) – then I'll be a keen reader.
In fact, when the original The Legend of Zelda came out, Miyamoto was worried that it would be too intellectual for the average gaming audience".
It would be nice if intellectual ability and the capacities that underlie it were important for success only up to a point.
So in 1993 he registered the term "Financial Times" as a trademark of his company, and declared that if the British paper entered the country it would be violating his intellectual property.
Indeed, James and many of his "pragmatist" followers claim that sometimes we are obliged to form beliefs on insufficient evidence, and that it would be a significant intellectual, prudential or even moral failure to do otherwise.
It would be a tragedy if intellectual curiosity were to become the preserve of an ever-narrowing cognitive elite.
On such an approach, it would be natural to understand intellectual virtues as dispositions to believe in accordance with the evidence (which, again, is defined independently, without mentioning the virtues).
This is perhaps an odd lesson to draw from the life of George Sand, but it would be more interesting if her intellectual and political milieu were more fully presented.
