leave someone the floor? What is the meaning of this expression in this context?

Its a mere generalization, it can mean anything.

Not everyone can have all information in the world or all power.

So why say it then?
His form of justifying the 'crap' that happens everywhere... If the world was all bunnies and love he might have said 'bumbles into a problem'... But the world is not bunnies and love, it is able to know or not.

That people ask, means it sinks in.

My is not below, though it is 'paltry' in comparison, perhaps.

I can't find any Leonard Cohen song that contains the lyric "leaves someone on the floor."

Without context the phrase would indicate leaving a dance partner standing on the floor with no one to dance with. It is a metaphor for love. No one will go their whole life without being hurt in love. At some point someone will leave you or hurt you in some fashion so you will be left standing on the floor, hurt and embarrassed and probably feeling that everyone is staring at you.

Hello, Nancy:

Could it possibly mean to leave someone LYING on the floor?

That is, in your life you are going to (metaphorically) knock out some people and -- sadly -- some people are going to knock you out.

As they say, the hard knocks of life.


James

parados has it right

Google's exact-text search shows that the piece, minus the remark about Leonard Cohen, comes directly from a very recent Scientific American article, "Wisdom From Psychopaths" by Kevin Dutton. He is referring to Steve Jobs and his ability to recover from setbacks.

"Apple's setbacks along the road to world domination serve as a cogent reminder of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that await all of us in life. Everyone, at some point or other, leaves someone on the floor, so to speak, and there's a pretty good chance that that someone, today, tomorrow or at some other auspicious juncture down the line, is going to turn out to be you."

So who inserted the spurious Cohen attribution? Was it you, Nancy? Or was it present in the article, but now edited out?

That's a pretty big assumption, doncha think, Merry. If this was about love, I can see it but as it's about Jobs, maybe the metaphor is as James the Parser says, a knock down drag 'em out fight.

Obviously you don't know how certain people feel about their Apple products.

From the context, it might be related to "leaving something on the floor" which means walking away with some of what you want but not everything. This is common in debates between opposing parties. If this is correct, I would read "leave someone on the floor" as the negotiators giving up your position in order to get concessions in other areas.

Exactly, I am reading Kein Dutton's book.
I quote in his book Apple’s setbacks along the road to world domination (indeed, they were on the verge of going down the plughole in the early days) serve as a cogent reminder of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that await all of us in life. No one has it all their own way. Everyone, at some point or other, ‘leaves someone on the floor’, as the Leonard Cohen song goes. And
there’s a pretty good chance that that someone, today, tomorrow or at some other auspicious juncture down the line, is going to turn out to be you.

We believe that there isn't a Leonard Cohen song where leaving someone on the floor is mentioned.