Talk:Gripping hand

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I used this the other day without even thinking about it and got quizzical looks from my coworkers! :-) -- WhiteDragon 06:03, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I use it all the time - I think in threes and fives, so it comes quite naturally - and make a point of linking to this article whenever I do it online. - Korivak 20:07, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

I am not a "particularly devoted fan of Niven and Pournelle" but I use this all the time. Whoever I am. (this unsigned comment was added on 21st October 2005 from 67.130.105.243.)

I don't know if this article gives the best explanation; one of the characters in the book describes it as an illustration of 'Aristotelian logic'. My understanding was it was a nice way of expressing the dialectic form of reasoning: 'on the one hand' = the thesis: 'on the other hand' = antithesis: 'on the gripping hand' = synthesis: we can't actually say this, as symetrical beings, though the phrase 'on the other hand' sort of implies it,so its nice to have a way of doing so. On the other hand,it doesn't help that some of the examples in the book aren't clear, and fit the description in the article. The gripping hand is, does anybody think the article should be amended to reflect this? (this unsigned post was added on 24th July 2006 from 62.6.139.11)

I always thought the "gripping hand" was meant to underline an important consideration with the decision to be made, such as the two options may be irrelevant and potentially harmful in the light of some other circumstance 128.113.148.163 13:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, it at least means there is a strong, dominant, or as above a syncretic option among three (or two if syncretic) options. For example, my merge proposal below: 98.215.48.213 (talk) 22:41, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Proposal

On the one hand, I like Niven and Pournelle and use "The Gripping Hand" as an expression every so often. On the other hand, this is a stub with only one reference at best. On the Gripping Hand, the article is also small and I'm not at all convinced of the Notability of the expression (where I am convinced that the novel itself would easily survive a challenge on book notability grounds. Therefore I would recommend rolling this text into the main article The Gripping Hand, and that Gripping hand and variants be redirected to the book. Comments? 98.215.48.213 (talk) 22:33, 11 April 2008 (UTC)