Today a friend of mine asked what is so paradoxical about Silver's Paradox of Defense. Just curious, is there any consensus on why it is called "Paradox of Defense", and what is the reason behind the "paradox"?

__________________
"...through judgment, you keep your distance, through distance you take your time, through time you safely win or gain the place of your adversary, the place being won or gained you have time safely either to strike, thrust, ward, close, grip, slip or go back, in which time your enemy is disappointed to hurt you, or to defend himself..." -George Silver, Brief Instructions

Surely the Paradox is that you must provide a credible Offence in order to maintain an effective Defence?

- Andre

__________________
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. - Antoine de Saint Exupery


Historic Armouries - purveyors of fine munitions grade armour and re-enactor equipment to Australia and New Zealand
HA Home Page: http://www.historicarmouries.com.au

When Silver wrote, a paradox was a reasoned discussion including contradictory arguments, not an apparent contradiction. Hence Paradoxes of DefenCe (let's use the English spelling please, or we might end up with fensing, and fenses around our houses) is a collection of paradoxes.

Cheers
Stephen

__________________
Stephen Hand
Stoccata School of Defence, Hobart
http://www.stoccata.org
Chivalry Bookshelf
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com