在《論人．序言》中，亞歷山大．波普宣稱「人性之學」可簡化成「幾個清楚要點」，但其論述實際上自我矛盾、駁雜不一。其「失策」可從三方面討論：（一）人之地位不確定：波普描繪的人性，具有「半嘉年華」式的形象，且建構於二元對立的認知上；（二）人之脆弱與轉變中的狀態：波普認為人的軟弱乃天註定，人如此景況，勢必使人不斷轉變，但這違反了「存有大鏈」本有的穩定不變；（三）「自利」（self-love）與「愛人」（social love）的關係：二者看似和諧的互動中，藏有異質性。自巴克汀對話論觀之，如此「失策」，展現了在言談中「異質性」之必然。

In ＂The Design＂ of An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope declares to reduce the ＂science of human nature＂ to ＂a few clear points,＂ but he actually presents a self-contradictory, heterogeneous discourse. His ＂failure＂ can be explored in three aspects: (1) the wavering status of human beings: Pope presents a quasi-carnivalesque image of humanity, and usually conceives humanity in terms of binary oppositions; (2) human weakness and the status of becoming: Pope recognizes human frailties as divinely ordained, while this condition leads to a status of becoming which contradicts the stability of the Great Chain of Being, and (3) the relationship between self-love and social love: heterogeneity exists in their supposed harmonious interaction. From the perspective of Bakhtinain dialogism, this ＂failure＂ serves to exemplify the inevitability of heterogeneity in discourse.