07-Hair-Splitting Justified Over Justification

Hair-splitting has a bad name.1 And, in most cases, rightly so. Nit-picking, gnat-straining, quibbling over tiny details, is a wretched business, one which should almost always be left to the small-minded. There are, however, occasions when hair-splitting is commendable; indeed, when it is essential; there are topics about which we cannot give too much attention to detail. In this article, I am concerned with one such: justification.