Make Nominative Determinism Great Again

Earlier this week, Mark Vernon and I performed our Philosophy Slam! ® at Babington House in Somerset. The first word called out by the audience for us to riff on was ‘Trump’.

Etymologically, ‘trump’ is related to ‘triumph’, which is why a trump card is the one you use to triumph over your opponent. For triumph differs from success: where success, as the essayist Francis Bacon implied, comes from inner endeavour, triumph involves winning at someone else’s expense. To trump someone is to triumph over them in a zero sum game, such as a deal in which there is a clear winner and loser, and where the hand you have been dealt allows you to declare victory.

That all seems quite apt for the newly re-elected American president; and suggests that he, author of ‘The Art of the Deal’, represents a particularly satisfying example of nominative determinism.