The long and the short …

… Aphorisms tell philosophy’s history as fragments, not systems | Aeon Essays. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Much of the history of Western philosophy can be narrated as a series of attempts to construct systems. Conversely, much of the history of aphorisms can be narrated as an animadversion, a turning away from such grand systems through the construction of literary fragments. The philosopher creates and critiques continuous lines of argument; the aphorist, on the other hand, composes scattered lines of intuition. One moves in a chain of logic; the other by leaps and bounds.

I confess I lean toward the aphoristic myself. Systems bore me.