登陆注册
15424600000094

第94章 Chapter IV(4)

The general validity of the arguments is unimpeachable,and the vigour of statement deserves all commendation.Mill puts victoriously the case for the entire freedom of thought and discussion.The real generosity of sentiment,and the obvious sincerity which comes from preaching what he had practised,gives new force to well-worn topics.The interest of the race not only requires the fullest possible liberty to form and to communicate our own opinions,but rather makes the practice a duty.Though Mill gives the essential reasons,his presentation of the case has significant peculiarities.Even if an opinion be true,he says,it ought to be open to discussion.He proceeds to urge the more doubtful point,that contradiction,even when the truth is contradicted,is desirable in itself.Free discussion not only destroys error,but invigorates truth.It preserves a wholesome intellectual atmosphere,which kills the weeds and stimulates the healthy growths.In mathematical reasoning,indeed,the evidence is all on one side.There are no objections,and no answers to objections.But as soon as we reach any question of the truths even of physical,and still more of the moral,sciences,truth must be attained by balancing 'two sets of conflicting reasons.'(11)The doctrine,true or false,which is not contradicted,comes to be held as a 'dead belief.'An objector is supposed to observe that on this showing,the existence of error is necessary to the vitality of truth,and that a belief must perish just because it is unanimously accepted.Mill 'affirms no such thing.'He admits 'that the stock of accepted truths must increase.'But the growth of unanimity,though 'inevitable and indispensable,'has its drawbacks.It would be desirable to encourage contradiction even by artificial contrivances.The Socratic dialectics and the school disputations more or less supplied a want which we have now no means of satisfying.(12)By systematic discussion of first principles,men are forced to understand the full bearing and the true grounds of their professed beliefs.This doctrine is illustrated,and no doubt was derived in part from the early discussions in which Mill had trained his logical powers.It suggests a valuable mode of mental discipline;but as a statement of the conditions of belief,it seems to confuse the accident with the essence.The bare fact of sincere contradiction surely tends to weaken belief;and resistance to contradiction,though it measures the strength of belief,is not the cause of its strength.No doubt a truth may be strengthened in passing through the ordeal of contradiction,so far as we are thus forced to realise its meaning.The same result may be produced by other means,and,above all,by applying belief to practice.We believe in arithmetical truths,partly because the oftener we have to count the more we realise the truth that two and two make four.Whatever the original source of our beliefs,the way to make them vivid is to act upon them.Mill himself incidentally observes that men have a living belief in religious doctrines,'just up to the point to which it is usual to act upon them.'(13)That,I take it,hits the point.The doctrine,for example,that we should turn the second cheek is practically superseded,not because it is never contradicted,but because it does not correspond to our genuine passions or actions.Beliefs,true or erroneous,preserve their vitality so long as they are put into practice,and not the less because they are held unanimously.What is true is that they are then rather instincts than opinions.Beliefs do not die when unchallenged,but are the more likely to be 'dormant'or held implicitly without conscious formulation.

This leads to a further result.As Mill insists in the Logic,'verification'is an essential part of proof.To act upon a belief is one way of verifying.The fact that we apply a theory successfully is also a valid proof that it is true in the great mass of everyday knowledge.But a religious belief is not verified in the same sense.The fact that I act upon it,and am satisfied with my action,proves that it is in harmony with my emotions,not that it is a true statement about facts.The persuasive force often remains,though the logic has become unsatisfactory.This suggests the question as to the nature of a satisfactory 'verification.'We clearly hold innumerable beliefs which we have not fully tested for ourselves.Mill supposes his opponent to urge that simple people must take many things on trust.(14)We might rather say that even the wisest has to take nine-tenths of his beliefs on trust.We may rightly believe many truths which we are incompetent either to discover or to prove directly because we can verify them indirectly.We can accept whole systems of truth,though we are unable to follow the direct proofs.A belief in astronomical theories,for example,is justified for the vast majority,not because they can understand the arguments of Laplace or Newton,but because they may know how elaborately and minutely the conclusions of astronomers are daily verified.The question is not whether we should take things on trust;we cannot help it;but upon what conditions our trust becomes rational.Authority cannot simply justify itself;but it is reasonable to trust an authority which challenges constant examination of its credentials and thorough verification of its conclusions.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 老婆是土匪

    老婆是土匪

    她是学习一般的女孩子,藏的贼深,装二货,在心里腹黑的暗道“本姑娘就是土匪,抢的就是你。”他是高富帅加学霸,全校女生向往的男神,开学第一天,彼此都不显露自己的心意,却不知道她与在第一天就情根深种,却因为种种原因她距他千里。
  • 特工狂妃倾天下

    特工狂妃倾天下

    无限好书尽在阅文。
  • 几死几生

    几死几生

    一个群屌丝骚年玩一个游戏在这个游戏里有很多的服务器但每个服务器里都只寥寥有十个人他们被这个游戏带进了一个考验里他突破重重阻碍却发现这些真的不必要
  • 她不是公主

    她不是公主

    林盼蕾,一个生在普通人家的小姑娘。哦不,她是一个生自与贫穷人家的小姑娘!在初中生涯中,她“遭遇”了一些奇闻趣事,帮助她走向爱情的道路!
  • 浮声弑琴

    浮声弑琴

    苍天已老,大地待荒;凡恐五湖四海竭,仙惧九天十地乱;只是一次重生,他放弃了荣华富贵,放弃了自在无为,而是选择了扶摇直上,依靠智慧与胆识,直登青云;以琴弑燊,血染衣襟,走在与他人不同的路上,弹着琴,奏出了不同的浮生之路。要么浮生若梦,要么血染成暮。“我只是一名琴师而已......”
  • 逆袭王爷傲娇妻

    逆袭王爷傲娇妻

    他想安身立命奈何不得,奋起反抗。为保自己,迎娶挚友深爱的女人;为保江山,嫁了此生最爱的女人。她易侬兮,为了让自己的婚姻只有交易,想来个先婚后爱,可惜求之不得!最终,她放弃了。然,他却孤城脚下乞求:爱妃,你消消气,我们回家好不好!(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 无花蔷薇

    无花蔷薇

    不是所有感情都会有始有终孤独尽头不一定惶恐可是生命总免不了最初的一阵痛旧的过去新的生活______无花蔷薇
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 绝世驭兽师:废柴八小姐

    绝世驭兽师:废柴八小姐

    她是25世纪最强的特工,却被人陷害穿越到了一个以强为尊的世纪。再次睁眼,已是碧墨大陆最稀少的驭兽师。废材?傻子?认命?这绝不是她的作风,从此她便要登上绝顶,让这些愚蠢的人们看看,谁才是最强者!
  • 异妖说

    异妖说

    她叫林初然。一场意外的反噬,改变了平凡轨迹。她说,维护世界和平,成了此生最大愿望。一路上旁观了不少‘妖、鬼’的风花雪月,待俗世沉浮,岁月荏苒,她迷茫,是否万物生灵心中都住着一只恶魔?要知道,在凝视深渊的时候,深渊也在反凝视阿…