Literary notes about Inapt (AI summary)
The word "inapt" has been used by writers to express a sense of unsuitability or a misfit quality that might not align with the intended or expected function. For example, William James employs the term to critique a quality perceived as unsuited for humble service, suggesting that certain noble characteristics might actually be ill-equipped for modest roles [1]. Similarly, George Santayana explores the idea by contrasting aptness with inaptness, indicating that both qualities carry a kind of richness, and he even muses on the possibility that inapt ideals might reshape themselves if given the chance to be partially embodied [2][3].
- It is dapper; it is noble in the bad sense, in the sense in which to be noble is to be inapt for humble service.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - It may be apt or inapt, with equal richness.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Such inapt ideals, it is true, would doubtless remodel themselves if they could be partly realised.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
