ABSTRACT
Much of what great writers have written has given rise to contention. To be sure, what they wrote and thought has been highly praised and has been seminal for those who followed them. By this means much of their thought has been developed or adapted. This also implies that debate and argument have arisen around their work. One is tempted to say that the more heightened and prolonged the debate, the more influential has been the thought. Put negatively and more strongly, an absence of debate suggests that there has been nothing worthy of argument. And in turn that has meant that, on the one hand, what a person wrote was of no consequence or was incorrect and can, therefore, be disregarded; or, on the other, that it immediately found its way into received thought, where the origin of the contribution was quickly forgotten.
