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Ethics of Belief-William Kingdon Clifford · The Conduct of Life

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Ethics of Belief. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Shena. The Ethics of Belief by William Kingdom Clifford,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one. The shipowner was about to send to sea
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Speaker 1: an emigrant ship. He knew that she was old and
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Speaker 1: not overwhell built at the first She had seen many
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Speaker 1: seas and climbs, and often had needed repairs. Doubts had
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Speaker 1: been suggested to him that possibly she was not seaworthy.
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Speaker 1: These doubts preyed upon his mind and made him unhappy.
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Speaker 1: He thought perhaps he ought to have her thoroughly overhauled
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Speaker 1: and refitted, even though this should put him at great
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Speaker 1: expanse before the ship sailed. However, he succeeded in overcoming
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Speaker 1: these melancholy reflections. He said to himself that she had
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Speaker 1: gone safely through so many voyages and had weathered so
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Speaker 1: many storms, that it was idle to suppose she would
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Speaker 1: not come home safely from this trip. Also, he would
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Speaker 1: put his trust in providence, which could hardly failed to
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Speaker 1: protect all these unhappy families that were leaving their fatherland
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Speaker 1: to seek better times elsewhere. He would dismiss from his
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Speaker 1: mind all in generous suspicions about the honesty of builders
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Speaker 1: and contractors. In such ways he acquired a sincere and
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Speaker 1: comfortable conviction that his vessel was thoroughly safe and seaworthy.
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Speaker 1: He washed her depart with the light heart and benevolent
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Speaker 1: wishes for the success of the exiles and their strange
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Speaker 1: new home that was to be, And he got his
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Speaker 1: insurance money when she went down and made ocean and
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Speaker 1: told no tales. What shall we say of him? Surely
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Speaker 1: this that he was very guilty of the death of
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Speaker 1: those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe
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Speaker 1: in the soundness of his ship. But the sincerity of
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Speaker 1: his conviction can't no wise help him, because he had
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Speaker 1: no right to believe on such evidence as was before him.
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Speaker 1: He had acquired his belief by honestly earning the impatient investigation,
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Speaker 1: but by stifling his doubts. And although in the end
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Speaker 1: he may have felt so sure about it that he
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Speaker 1: couldnot think otherwise, yet as much he had knowingly and
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Speaker 1: willingly worked hisself into that frame of mind, And he
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Speaker 1: must be held responsible for it. Let us alter the
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Speaker 1: case a little and suppose that the ship was not unsound,
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Speaker 1: after all, that she had made her voice safely, and
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Speaker 1: many others after it. Will that diminish the guilt of
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Speaker 1: her owner, not one job. When the action is once done,
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Speaker 1: whether it's right or wrong, it's forever. No accidental failure
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Speaker 1: of his good or evil fruits can possibly alter that
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Speaker 1: the man would have not been innocent. He would have
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Speaker 1: only not been found out. The question of right or
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Speaker 1: wrong has to do with the origin of his belief,
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Speaker 1: not the matter of it, not what it was, but
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Speaker 1: how he got it, Not whether it turned out to
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Speaker 1: be true or false, but whether he had a right
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Speaker 1: to believe on such evidence as was before him. There
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Speaker 1: was once an island in which some of the inhabitants
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Speaker 1: professed a religion teaching neither the doctrine of original sinth
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Speaker 1: nor that of eternal punishment. A suspicion got abroad that
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Speaker 1: the professions of this religion had made unfair use of
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Speaker 1: means to get their doctrines taught to children. They were
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Speaker 1: accused of wrestling the loss of their country in such
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Speaker 1: a way as to remove children from the care of
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Speaker 1: their natural and legal guardians, and even stealing them away
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Speaker 1: and keeping them concealed from their friends and relations. A
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Speaker 1: certain number of men formed themselves into a society for
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Speaker 1: the purpose of agitating the public about this matter. They
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Speaker 1: published grave accusations against individual citizens of the highest position
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Speaker 1: and character, and did all in their power to injury
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Speaker 1: citizens and their exercise of their professions. So great was
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Speaker 1: the noise they made that the Commission was appointed to
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Speaker 1: investigate the facts. But after the Commission had carefully inquired
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Speaker 1: into all the evidence that could be got, it appeared
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Speaker 1: that the accused were innocent. Not only had they made
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Speaker 1: accused of insufficient evidence, but the evidence of their innocence
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Speaker 1: was such as the agitators might have easily obtained had
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Speaker 1: they made an attempt to a fair inquiry. After these disclosures,
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Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the country looked upon the members of
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Speaker 1: the agitating society not only as persons who judgment was
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Speaker 1: to be distrusted, but also no longer to be counted
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Speaker 1: as honorable men, For although they had sincerely and conscientiously
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Speaker 1: believed in the charges they had made, yet they had
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Speaker 1: no right to believe such evidence as was before them.
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Speaker 1: Their sincere convictions, instead of being honestly earned by patient inquiry,
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Speaker 1: were stolen by listening to the voice of prejudice and passion.
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Speaker 1: Let us all so who buried this case and suppose
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Speaker 1: other things remaining as before that a more still accurate
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Speaker 1: investigation proved the accused to have been really guilty. Would
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Speaker 1: this have made any difference in the guilt of the accusers?
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Speaker 1: Clearly not. The question is not whether their belief was
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Speaker 1: true or false, but whether they entertained it on wrong grounds.
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Speaker 1: They would no doubt say, now you see we were
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Speaker 1: right after all. Next time, perhaps you will believe us,
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Speaker 1: And they might be believed, but they would not thereby
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Speaker 1: become honorable man. They will not be innocent. They will
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Speaker 1: only not be found out. Every one of them, if
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Speaker 1: he chose to examine himself and thorough conscious, would see
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Speaker 1: that he had acquired and nourished and believed that he
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Speaker 1: had no right to believe on such evidence as was
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Speaker 1: before him, and therein would no he had done a
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Speaker 1: wrong thing. It may be said, however, that in both
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Speaker 1: these supposed cases, it was not the belief which is
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Speaker 1: to be judged wrong, but the action following upon it.
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Speaker 1: The ship owner might say, I am perfectly certain that
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Speaker 1: my ship is sound, But I still feel it my
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Speaker 1: duty to ever examined before trusting the lives of so
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Speaker 1: many people to her. And it might have been said
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Speaker 1: to the agitator, however, convinced you were of the justice
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Speaker 1: of your cause and the truth of your convictions, you
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Speaker 1: ought not to have made a public attack upon any
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Speaker 1: man's character until you have examined the evidence on both
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Speaker 1: sides with the utmost patience and care. In the first place,
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Speaker 1: let us admit that, so as far as it goes,
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Speaker 1: this view of the case is right and necessary. Right
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Speaker 1: because even when a man's belief is so fixed that
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Speaker 1: he cannot think otherwise, he still has the choice action
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Speaker 1: suggested by it, and so can I escape the duty
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Speaker 1: of investigating on the ground of the of his convictions.
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Speaker 1: And necessary because those who are not yet capable of
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Speaker 1: controlling their feelings and thoughts must have a plan rule
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Speaker 1: dealing with overt acts. But this being premised is necessary,
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Speaker 1: it becomes clear that it is not sufficient, and that
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Speaker 1: our previous judgment is required to supplement it, for it
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Speaker 1: is not possible to so severe the belief of the
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Speaker 1: action it suggests to condemn the one without condemning the other.
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Speaker 1: No man holding a strong belief on one side of
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Speaker 1: a question, or even wishing to hold a belief on
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Speaker 1: one side, can investigate with such a fairness and completeness
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Speaker 1: as if he were really in doubt, and are biased,
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Speaker 1: so that the existence of a belief not founding on
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Speaker 1: a fair inquiry ufensive man for the performance of this
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Speaker 1: necessary duty. Nor is that truly a belief at all
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Speaker 1: which has not some influence upon the actions of him
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Speaker 1: who holds it. He who truly believes that which prompts
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Speaker 1: him to an action, has looked upon the action to
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Speaker 1: lust after it. He has committed it already in his heart.
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Speaker 1: If a belief is not realized immediately in open deeds,
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Speaker 1: it is stored up for the guidance of the future.
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Speaker 1: It goes to make a part of that aggregate of
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Speaker 1: beliefs which is the link between sensation and action at
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Speaker 1: every moment of our lives, and which is so organized
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Speaker 1: and compacted together that no part of it can be
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Speaker 1: isolated from the rest. But every new addition modifies the
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Speaker 1: structure of the whole. No real belief, however stifling and
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Speaker 1: fragmentity may it seem, is ever truly insignificant. It prepares
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Speaker 1: us to receive more of its like, confirms those which
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Speaker 1: resemble it before, and weakens others. And so gradually it
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Speaker 1: lays deathily trained in our innermost thoughts, which may someday
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Speaker 1: explode into overt action and leave its stamp upon our
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Speaker 1: character forever. And no one man's belief is in any
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Speaker 1: case a private matter which concerns himself alone. Our lives
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Speaker 1: are guided by that general conception of the course of
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Speaker 1: things which has been created by society for social purposes.
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Speaker 1: Our words, our phrases, our forms and processes, and motive
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Speaker 1: thought are common property, fashion and perfectly from age to age,
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Speaker 1: and heirloom, which every succeeding generation inherits as a precious
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Speaker 1: deposit and a sacred trust, to be handled onto the
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Speaker 1: next one, not unchanged, but enlarged and purified, with some
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Speaker 1: clear marks of his properer handiwork into this for good
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Speaker 1: or ill, is woven every belief of every man who
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Speaker 1: has speech of his fellows an awful privilege and awful responsibility.
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Speaker 1: We should help to create the world in which we
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Speaker 1: prosperitly will live. In the two supposed cases which have
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Speaker 1: been considered, it has been judged wrong to believe on
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Speaker 1: insufficient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing doubts and
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Speaker 1: avoiding investigation. The reason of this judgment is not far
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Speaker 1: to seek. It is in that both cases the belief
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Speaker 1: held by one man was of great importance to other men.
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Speaker 1: But forasmuch as no belief held by one man, however
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Speaker 1: seeingly trivial the belief, and however obscure the believer, is
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Speaker 1: ever actually insignificant or without effect on his fate of mankind,
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Speaker 1: we have no choice but to extend our judgment to
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Speaker 1: all cases of belief, whatever belief. That sacred faculty which
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Speaker 1: prompts the decisions of our will and knits into harmonious
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Speaker 1: working all the compacted energies of our being is ours,
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Speaker 1: not for ourselves, but for humanity. It is rightly used
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Speaker 1: on truths which have been established by long experience and
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Speaker 1: waiting toll, and which have stood in the fierce light
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Speaker 1: of free and fearless questioning. Then it helps bring together
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Speaker 1: and strengthen and direct their common action. It is desecrated
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Speaker 1: when given to unproved and unquestionoued statements for the solence
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Speaker 1: and private pleasure of the believer. To add a tensil
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Speaker 1: splendor to the plain straight road of our life, and
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Speaker 1: display a bright mirage beyond it, or even to drown
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Speaker 1: the common sorrows of our kind by a self deception
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Speaker 1: which allows them not only to cast down, but also
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Speaker 1: to degrade us, who showever deserve well of his fellows
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Speaker 1: in this matter, will guard the purity of his beliefs,
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Speaker 1: or the very jealous care lest at any time it
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Speaker 1: should rest on an unworthy object and catch a stain
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Speaker 1: which can never be wiped away. It is not only
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Speaker 1: the leader of man, statesman, philosopher, or poet that owes
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Speaker 1: this is bound in duty to mankind. Every rustic who
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Speaker 1: delivers the village alehouse is slow. Infrequent sentences may help
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Speaker 1: kill or keep alive the fatal superstitious which clock is raised.
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Speaker 1: Every hard work wife of an artisan may transmit her
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Speaker 1: children's beliefs. We shall knit society together or rended in pieces.
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Speaker 1: No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape
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Speaker 1: the universal duty of questioning all that we believe. It
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Speaker 1: is true that this is a duty that is a
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Speaker 1: hard one, and the doubt which comes out of it
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Speaker 1: is often a better thing. It leaves us bare and
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Speaker 1: powerless where we thought we were safe and strong. To
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Speaker 1: know all about anything is to know how to deal
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Speaker 1: with it under all circumstances. We felt much happier and
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Speaker 1: more secure when we know precisely what to do no
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Speaker 1: matter what happens. Then, when we have lost our way
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Speaker 1: and do not know where to turn, and if we
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Speaker 1: have supposed ourselves to know all about anything and to
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Speaker 1: be capable of doing what is fit in regard to it,
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Speaker 1: we naturally do not like to find that we are
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Speaker 1: ignorant and powerless, that we have to begin again at
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Speaker 1: the beginning and try to learn what the thing is
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Speaker 1: and how it is to be dealt with, if indeed
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Speaker 1: it can be learnt about. It is the sense of
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Speaker 1: power attached to the sense of acknowledge that makes men
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Speaker 1: desirous of believing and afraid of doughty. The sense of
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Speaker 1: power is the highest and best pleasure. With a belief
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Speaker 1: on which it is founded is a true belief, it
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Speaker 1: has been irred barely by investigation, For then we may
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Speaker 1: justly feel it is common property and hold good for
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Speaker 1: others as well as for ourselves. Then we may be
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Speaker 1: glad not that I have learned secrets for which by
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Speaker 1: I am safer and stronger, but that we men have
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Speaker 1: got mastery over more of the world, and we shall
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Speaker 1: be strong not for ourselves, in the name of man
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Speaker 1: and his strange. But if the belief has been accepted
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Speaker 1: on insufficient evidence, the pleasure is a stolen one. Not
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Speaker 1: only does it deceive ourselves by giving us a sense
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Speaker 1: of power which we do not really possess, but it
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Speaker 1: is sinful because it is stolen in defiance of our
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Speaker 1: duty to mankind. That duty is to guard ourselves from
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Speaker 1: such beliefs as pestilence, which may surely master our own
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Speaker 1: body then spread to the rest of the town. What
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Speaker 1: would be thought of one who, for the sake of
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Speaker 1: sweet fruit should deliberately run the risk of delivering a
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Speaker 1: plague upon his family and neighbors. And as in other cases,
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Speaker 1: it is not only the risk which has to be considered,
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Speaker 1: for bad action is always bad at the time when
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Speaker 1: it is done, no matter what happens afterward. Every time
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Speaker 1: we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we weaken our
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Speaker 1: powers and self control of doubting, of judicially and fairly
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Speaker 1: weighing evidence. We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance
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Speaker 1: and support of false beliefs and the faily wrong actions
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Speaker 1: which they lead to, and the evil born with one
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Speaker 1: such belief is entertained great and wide. But a greater
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Speaker 1: and wider evil arises when a creditionalist character is maintained
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Speaker 1: and supported, having a believing of worthy reasons, and it
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Speaker 1: is fostered and made permanent. If I steal money from
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Speaker 1: any person, there may be no harm done from the
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Speaker 1: mere transferred possession. He may not feel the loss, or
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Speaker 1: it may prevent him from using the money badly. But
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Speaker 1: I cannot help doing this great thing towards man, that
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Speaker 1: I make myself dishonest. Well, her society is not that
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Speaker 1: for which it she loses property, but that it should
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Speaker 1: become then of thieves, for then it must cease to
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Speaker 1: be society. This is why we not ought to do evil,
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Speaker 1: that good may come, for at any rate, this great
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Speaker 1: evil has come, and we have done evil and wicked
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Speaker 1: thereby in like manner. If I let myself believe on
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Speaker 1: anything in sufficient evidence, there may be no great heart
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Speaker 1: done by the mere belief. It may be true after all,
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Speaker 1: or I may never have occasion to exhibit an outward act.
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Speaker 1: But I cannot help doing this great world towards man
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Speaker 1: that I make myself creditionalist. Danger to society is not
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Speaker 1: merely that they should believe wrong things, though that is
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Speaker 1: great enough, but that it should become creducialist and lose
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Speaker 1: the habit of testing things and inquiry into them, For
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Speaker 1: then it must sink back into savagery, the herd which
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Speaker 1: is done by credulity. A man is not confined to
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Speaker 1: the fostering of creducionalist character in others and consequent support
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Speaker 1: of false beliefs. Habitual want of care about what I
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Speaker 1: believe leads to habitual want of care, and others is
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Speaker 1: about the truth of what is told to me. Man
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Speaker 1: speak the truth of one another when each revers the
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Speaker 1: truth that is own wine and in the other's mind.
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Speaker 1: But how shall my friend rever the truth in my
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Speaker 1: mind when I myself am careless about it? When I
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Speaker 1: believe things because I want to believe them, and because
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Speaker 1: they are comforting and pleasant, Well he not learned to
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Speaker 1: cry peace to me, Well, there's no peace. By such course,
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Speaker 1: I shall surround myself with a thick, avid sphere of
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Speaker 1: falsehood and fraud, and in that I must live. It
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Speaker 1: may matter little to me in my cloud caulco sweet
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Speaker 1: allusions and darling lies. But it matters much to man,
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Speaker 1: and I have made my neighbors ready to deceive. The
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Speaker 1: creducialist man is father to the liar and the cheek.
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Speaker 1: He lives in the busom of his family, and it
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Speaker 1: is no marvel if he should become even as they
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Speaker 1: are so closely. Are duties lid together. That whoso shall
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Speaker 1: keep the whole law and yet offend at one point,
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Speaker 1: he is guilty of all. To sum up, it is wrong,
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Speaker 1: always everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
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Speaker 1: If a man holding a belief which he was taught
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Speaker 1: in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes
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Speaker 1: away any doubts which arouse about it in his mind,
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Speaker 1: purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of man,
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Speaker 1: They call it to question or discuss it, and regards
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Speaker 1: as if pious those questions cannot be easily asked without
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Speaker 1: disturbing it. The life of that man is one long
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Speaker 1: sin against mankind. If this judgment seems harsh, will apply
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Speaker 1: to those simple souls who have never known better, who
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Speaker 1: have been brought up from the cradle with a horror
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Speaker 1: of doubt, and taught that their eternal welfare depends on
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Speaker 1: what what they believe. That at least a very serious question,
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Speaker 1: who have made Israel to sin? It may be permitted
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Speaker 1: to be to fortify this judgment with the sentence of Milton,
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Speaker 1: a bad baby already in the truth. And if he
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Speaker 1: believes things that only his pastor says so, or the
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Speaker 1: simbly so determined without knowing other reasons, though his belief
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Speaker 1: be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.
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Speaker 1: And with this famous aphorism of color Ridge, he who
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Speaker 1: begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by
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Speaker 1: loving his old sect or church better than Christianity, and
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Speaker 1: in loving himself better than all. Inquiry into the evidence
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Speaker 1: of a doctrine is not to be made once for all,
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Speaker 1: and they be taken as finally settled. It is never
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Speaker 1: lawful to stifle a doubt, for either it can be
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Speaker 1: honestly answered by be of the equality already made, or
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Speaker 1: else he proves the equery was not complete, but says one,
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Speaker 1: I am a busy man. I have no time for
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Speaker 1: the low course of study which will be necessary to
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Speaker 1: make me in any degree a competent judge of sturdy questions,
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Speaker 1: or even to understand the nature of the arguments, then
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Speaker 1: he should have no time to believe. End of chapter.
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Speaker 2: Chapter two of the Ethics of Belief. This is a
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Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 2: Recording by Pamela Krantz. The Ethics of Belief by William
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Speaker 2: Kingdom Clifford, Chapter two, The weight of authority? Are we
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Speaker 2: then to become universal skeptics, doubting everything, afraid always to
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Speaker 2: put one foot before the other until we have personally
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Speaker 2: tested the firmness of the road? Are we to deprive
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Speaker 2: ourselves of the help and guidance of that vast body
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Speaker 2: of knowledge which is daily growing upon the world, because
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Speaker 2: neither we nor any other person can possibly test a
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Speaker 2: hundredth part of it by immediate experiment or observation, and
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Speaker 2: because it would not be completely proved if we did,
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Speaker 2: Shall we steal and tell lies? Because we have had
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Speaker 2: no personal experience wide enough to justify the belief that
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Speaker 2: it is wrong to do so. There is no practical
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Speaker 2: danger that such consequences will ever, follow from scrupulous care
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Speaker 2: and self control. In the matter of belief. Those men
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Speaker 2: who have most nearly done their duty in this respect
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Speaker 2: have found that certain great principles, and these most fitted
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Speaker 2: for the guidance of life, have stood out more and
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Speaker 2: more clearly in proportion to the care and honesty with
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Speaker 2: which they were tested, and have acquired in this way
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Speaker 2: a practical certainty. The beliefs about right and wrong which
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Speaker 2: guide our actions in dealing with men in society, and
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Speaker 2: the beliefs about physical nature, which guide our actions in
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Speaker 2: dealing with animate and inanimate bodies, These never suffer from investigation.
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Speaker 2: They can take care of themselves without being propped up
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Speaker 2: by acts of faith, the clamour of paid advocates, or
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Speaker 2: the suppression of contrary evidence. Moreover, there are many cases
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Speaker 2: in which it is our duty to act upon probabilities,
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Speaker 2: although the evidence is not such as to justify present belief,
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Speaker 2: because it is precisely by such action and by observation
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Speaker 2: of its fruits, that evidence is God, which may justify
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Speaker 2: future belief, so that we have no reason to fear
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Speaker 2: lest a habit of conscientious inquiry should paralyze the actions
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Speaker 2: of our daily life. But because it is not enough
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Speaker 2: to say it is wrong to believe on unworthy evidence
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Speaker 2: without saying also what evidence is worthy, we shall now
23:11
Speaker 2: go on to inquire under what circumstances it is lawful
23:15
Speaker 2: to believe on the testimony of others. And then further
23:19
Speaker 2: we shall inquire more generally, when and why we may
23:22
Speaker 2: believe that which goes beyond our own experience, or even
23:27
Speaker 2: beyond the experience of mankind. In what cases, then let
23:32
Speaker 2: us ask, in the first place, is the testimony of
23:35
Speaker 2: a man unworthy of belief? He may say that which
23:40
Speaker 2: is untrue, either knowingly or unknowingly. In the first case,
23:44
Speaker 2: he is lying, and his moral character is to blame.
23:48
Speaker 2: In the second case, he is ignorant or mistaken, and
23:52
Speaker 2: it is only his knowledge or his judgment which is
23:54
Speaker 2: in fault. In order that we may have the right
23:58
Speaker 2: to accept his testimony as grown for believing what he says,
24:02
Speaker 2: we must have reasonable grounds for trusting his veracity, that
24:06
Speaker 2: he is really trying to speak the truth so far
24:09
Speaker 2: as he knows it, his knowledge that he has had
24:12
Speaker 2: opportunities of knowing the truth about this matter, and his
24:16
Speaker 2: judgment that he has made proper use of those opportunities
24:19
Speaker 2: in coming to the conclusion which he affirms. However plain
24:24
Speaker 2: and obvious, these reasons may be so that no man
24:27
Speaker 2: of ordinary intelligence, reflecting upon the matter, could fail to
24:31
Speaker 2: arrive at them. It is nevertheless true that a great
24:34
Speaker 2: many persons do habitually disregard them. In weighing testimony of
24:40
Speaker 2: the two questions, equally important to the trustworthiness of a witness,
24:45
Speaker 2: is he dishonest? And may he be mistaken? The majority
24:49
Speaker 2: of mankind are perfectly satisfied if one can, with some
24:53
Speaker 2: show of probability, be answered in the negative. The excellent
24:58
Speaker 2: moral character of a man as alleged as ground for
25:01
Speaker 2: accepting his statements about things which he cannot possibly have known.
25:07
Speaker 2: A Mohammedan, for example, will tell us that the character
25:10
Speaker 2: of his prophet was so noble and majestic that it
25:13
Speaker 2: commands the reverence even of those who do not believe
25:16
Speaker 2: in his mission. So admiral was his moral teaching, so
25:21
Speaker 2: wisely put together the great social machine which he created,
25:25
Speaker 2: that his precepts have not only been accepted by a
25:28
Speaker 2: great portion of mankind, but have actually been obeyed. His
25:33
Speaker 2: institutions have, on the one hand, rescued the negro from savagery, and,
25:37
Speaker 2: on the other hand, have taught civilization to the advancing West.
25:43
Speaker 2: And although the races which held the highest forms of
25:45
Speaker 2: his faith and most fully embodied his mind and thought,
25:49
Speaker 2: have all been conquered and swept away by barbaric tribes,
25:54
Speaker 2: yet the history of their marvelous attainments remains as an
25:57
Speaker 2: imperishable glory to Islam. Are we to doubt the word
26:01
Speaker 2: of a man so great and so good? Can we
26:04
Speaker 2: suppose that this magnificent genius, this splendid moral hero, has
26:09
Speaker 2: lied to us about the most solemn and sacred matters.
26:13
Speaker 2: The testimony of Mohammed is clear that there is but
26:16
Speaker 2: one God, and that he Mohammed, is his prophet. That
26:20
Speaker 2: if we believe in Him, we shall enjoy everlasting felicity,
26:24
Speaker 2: but that if we do not, we shall be damned.
26:27
Speaker 2: This testimony rests on the most awful of foundations, the
26:31
Speaker 2: revelation of Heaven itself. For was he not visited by
26:35
Speaker 2: the Angel Gabriel as he fasted and prayed in his
26:38
Speaker 2: desert cave and allowed to enter into the blessed fields
26:41
Speaker 2: of Paradise. Surely God is God and Mohammed is the
26:45
Speaker 2: prophet of God. What should we answer to this Mussulman. First,
26:51
Speaker 2: no doubt, we should be tempted to take exception against
26:53
Speaker 2: his view of the character of the prophet and the
26:56
Speaker 2: uniformly beneficial influence of Islam, before we could go with
27:00
Speaker 2: him altogether. In these matters. It might seem that we
27:03
Speaker 2: should have to forget many terrible things of which we
27:06
Speaker 2: have heard or read. But if we chose to grant
27:09
Speaker 2: him all these assumptions for the sake of argument, and
27:13
Speaker 2: because it is difficult both for the faithful and for
27:16
Speaker 2: infidels to discuss them fairly and without passion, still we
27:21
Speaker 2: should have something to say which takes away the ground
27:23
Speaker 2: of his belief and therefore shows that it is wrong
27:27
Speaker 2: to entertain it, namely this the character of Mohammed is
27:32
Speaker 2: excellent evidence that he was honest and spoke the truth
27:35
Speaker 2: so far as he knew it, But it is no
27:38
Speaker 2: evidence at all that he knew what the truth was.
27:41
Speaker 2: What means could he have of knowing that the form
27:44
Speaker 2: which appeared to him to be the Angel Gabriel was
27:47
Speaker 2: not a hallucination, and that his apparent visit to Paradise
27:51
Speaker 2: was not a dream, grant that he himself was fully
27:55
Speaker 2: persuaded and honestly believed that he had the guidance of
27:58
Speaker 2: heaven and was the vehicle of a souper natural revelation.
28:01
Speaker 2: How could he know that this strong conviction was not
28:04
Speaker 2: a mistake. Let us put ourselves in his place. We
28:09
Speaker 2: shall find that the more completely we endeavor to realize
28:12
Speaker 2: what passed through his mind, the more clearly we shall
28:15
Speaker 2: perceive that the prophet could have had no adequate ground
28:19
Speaker 2: for the belief in his own inspiration. It is most
28:22
Speaker 2: probable that he himself never doubted of the matter or
28:26
Speaker 2: thought of asking the question. But we are in the
28:29
Speaker 2: position of those to whom the question has been asked,
28:32
Speaker 2: and who are bound to answer it. It is known
28:36
Speaker 2: to medical observers that solitude and want of food are
28:39
Speaker 2: powerful means of producing delusion and a fostering a tendency
28:43
Speaker 2: to mental disease. Let us suppose then, that I, like Mohammed,
28:49
Speaker 2: go into desert places to fast and pray. What things
28:53
Speaker 2: can happen to me which will give me the right
28:55
Speaker 2: to believe that I am divinely inspired. Suppose that I
28:59
Speaker 2: get information, apparently from a celestial visitor, which, upon being tested,
29:04
Speaker 2: is found to be correct. I cannot be sure in
29:07
Speaker 2: the first place that the celestial visitor is not a
29:10
Speaker 2: figment of my own mind, and that the information did
29:13
Speaker 2: not come to me unknown at the time to my
29:16
Speaker 2: consciousness through some subtle channel of sense. But if my
29:21
Speaker 2: visitor were a real visitor, and for a long time
29:23
Speaker 2: gave me information which was found to be trustworthy, this
29:27
Speaker 2: would indeed be good ground for trusting him in the
29:29
Speaker 2: future as to such matters as fall within human powers
29:33
Speaker 2: of verification. But it would not be ground for trusting
29:37
Speaker 2: his testimony as to any other matters. For although his
29:41
Speaker 2: tested character would justify me in believing that he spoke
29:44
Speaker 2: the truth so far as he knew, yet the same
29:47
Speaker 2: question would present itself, what ground is there for supposing
29:51
Speaker 2: that he knows? Even if my supposed visitor had given
29:55
Speaker 2: me such information subsequently verified by me, proved him to
30:01
Speaker 2: have means of knowledge about verifiable matters far exceeding my own,
30:06
Speaker 2: this would not justify me in believing what he said
30:08
Speaker 2: about matters that are not at present capable of verification
30:12
Speaker 2: by man. It would be ground for interesting conjecture, and
30:17
Speaker 2: for the hope that is the fruit of our patient inquiry.
30:20
Speaker 2: We might, by and by attain to such a means
30:23
Speaker 2: of verification as should rightly turn conjecture into belief. For
30:28
Speaker 2: belief belongs to man and to the guidance of human affairs.
30:32
Speaker 2: No belief is real unless it guide our actions, and
30:36
Speaker 2: those very actions supply a test of its truth. But
30:40
Speaker 2: it may be replied. The acceptance of Islam as a
30:43
Speaker 2: system is just that action which is prompted by belief
30:47
Speaker 2: in the mission of the prophet, and which will serve
30:50
Speaker 2: for a test of its truth. Is it possible to
30:54
Speaker 2: believe that a system which has succeeded so well is
30:57
Speaker 2: really founded upon a delusion. Not only have individual saints
31:02
Speaker 2: found joy in peace and believing and verified those spiritual
31:06
Speaker 2: experiences which are promised to the faithful, but nations also
31:10
Speaker 2: have been raised from savagery or barbarism to a higher
31:14
Speaker 2: social state. Surely we are at liberty to say that
31:17
Speaker 2: the belief has been acted upon and that it has
31:20
Speaker 2: been verified. It requires, however, but little consideration to show
31:25
Speaker 2: that what has really been verified is not at all
31:28
Speaker 2: the supernal character of the prophet's mission or the trustworthiness
31:32
Speaker 2: of his authority in matters which we ourselves cannot test,
31:36
Speaker 2: but only his practical wisdom in certain very mundane things.
31:41
Speaker 2: The fact that believers have found joy and peace in
31:43
Speaker 2: believing gives us the right to say that the doctrine
31:47
Speaker 2: is a comfortable doctrine and pleasant to the soul. But
31:51
Speaker 2: it does not give us the right to say that
31:53
Speaker 2: it is true. And the question which our conscience is
31:57
Speaker 2: always asking about that which we are tempted to believe
32:00
Speaker 2: is not is it comfortable and pleasant? But is it true?
32:06
Speaker 2: That the prophet preached certain doctrines and predicted that spiritual
32:10
Speaker 2: comfort would be found in them? Proves only his sympathy
32:13
Speaker 2: with human nature and his knowledge of it. But it
32:16
Speaker 2: does not prove his superhuman knowledge of theology. And if
32:21
Speaker 2: we admit, for the sake of argument, for it seems
32:23
Speaker 2: that we cannot do more that the progress made by
32:26
Speaker 2: Moslem nations in certain cases was really due to the
32:30
Speaker 2: system formed and sent forth into the world by Mohammad.
32:34
Speaker 2: We are not at liberty to conclude from this that
32:37
Speaker 2: he was inspired to declare the truth about things which
32:40
Speaker 2: we cannot verify. We are only at liberty to infer
32:44
Speaker 2: the excellence of his moral precepts, or of the means
32:47
Speaker 2: which he devised for so working upon men as to
32:50
Speaker 2: get them obeyed, or of the social and political machinery
32:54
Speaker 2: which he set up. And it would require a great
32:57
Speaker 2: amount of careful examination into the history of those nations
33:01
Speaker 2: to determine which of these things had the greater share
33:04
Speaker 2: in the result. So that here again it is the
33:07
Speaker 2: prophet's knowledge of human nature and his sympathy with it
33:10
Speaker 2: that are verified, not his divine inspiration or his knowledge
33:14
Speaker 2: of theology. If there were only one prophet, indeed, it
33:19
Speaker 2: might well seem a difficult and even an ungracious task
33:22
Speaker 2: to decide upon what points we would trust him and
33:25
Speaker 2: on what we would doubt his authority, seeing what help
33:28
Speaker 2: and furtherance all men have gained in all ages from
33:31
Speaker 2: those who saw more clearly, who felt more strongly, and
33:35
Speaker 2: who sought the truth with more single heart than their
33:38
Speaker 2: weaker brethren. But there is not only one prophet. And
33:42
Speaker 2: while a consent of many upon that which as men
33:45
Speaker 2: they had real means of knowing and did know, has
33:48
Speaker 2: endured to the end and been honorably built into the
33:51
Speaker 2: great fabric of human knowledge, the diverse witness of some
33:55
Speaker 2: about that which they did not and could not know,
33:58
Speaker 2: remains as a warning to us that to exaggerate the
34:01
Speaker 2: prophetic authority is to misuse it and to dishonor those
34:05
Speaker 2: who have sought only to help and further us after
34:08
Speaker 2: their power. It is hardly in human nature that a
34:12
Speaker 2: man should quite accurately gauge the limits of his own insight.
34:16
Speaker 2: But it is the duty of those who profit by
34:18
Speaker 2: his work to consider carefully where he may have been
34:22
Speaker 2: carried beyond it. If we must needs embalm his possible
34:27
Speaker 2: errors along with his solid achievements, and use his authority
34:32
Speaker 2: as an excuse for believing what he cannot have known,
34:35
Speaker 2: we make of his goodness an occasion to sin. To
34:39
Speaker 2: consider only one other such witness, The followers of the
34:42
Speaker 2: Buddha have at least as much right to appeal to
34:45
Speaker 2: individual and social experience in support of the authority of
34:49
Speaker 2: the Eastern Savior. The special mark of his religion, it
34:53
Speaker 2: is said that in which it has never been surpassed
34:57
Speaker 2: is the comfort and consolation which it gives to the
34:59
Speaker 2: sick sorrowful, the tender sympathy with which it soothes and
35:03
Speaker 2: assuages all the natural griefs of men. And surely no
35:07
Speaker 2: triumph of social morality can be greater or nobler than
35:11
Speaker 2: that which is kept nearly half the human race from
35:14
Speaker 2: persecuting in the name of religion. If we are to
35:18
Speaker 2: trust the accounts of his early followers, he believed himself
35:22
Speaker 2: to have come upon earth with a divine and cosmic
35:24
Speaker 2: mission to set rolling the wheel of the law. Being
35:28
Speaker 2: a prince, he divested himself of his kingdom and of
35:32
Speaker 2: his free will, became acquainted with misery, that he might
35:35
Speaker 2: learn how to meet and subdue it. Could such a
35:38
Speaker 2: man speak falsely about solemn things? And as for his knowledge,
35:43
Speaker 2: was he not a man miraculous with powers more than man's.
35:47
Speaker 2: He was born of woman without the help of man.
35:51
Speaker 2: He rose into the air and was transfigured before his kinsmen.
35:55
Speaker 2: At last he went up bodily into heaven from the
35:57
Speaker 2: top of Adam's peak. Is not his word to be
36:00
Speaker 2: believed in when he testifies of heavenly things. If there
36:05
Speaker 2: were only he and no other with such claims. But
36:08
Speaker 2: there is Mohammed with his testimony. We cannot choose but
36:12
Speaker 2: listen to them both. The prophet tells us that there
36:15
Speaker 2: is one God, and that we shall live forever in
36:17
Speaker 2: joy or misery, according as we believe in the prophet
36:21
Speaker 2: or not the Buddhist says that there is no God,
36:24
Speaker 2: and that we shall be annihilated by and by if
36:27
Speaker 2: we are good enough, both cannot be infallibly inspired. One
36:32
Speaker 2: or other must have been the victim of a delusion
36:34
Speaker 2: and thought he knew that which he really did not know.
36:37
Speaker 2: Who shall dare to say which? And how can we
36:39
Speaker 2: justify ourselves in believing that the other was not also deluded?
36:44
Speaker 2: We are led then to these judgments. Following the goodness
36:48
Speaker 2: and greatness of a man do not justify us in
36:51
Speaker 2: accepting a belief upon the warrant of his authority, unless
36:55
Speaker 2: there are reasonable grounds for supposing that he knew the
36:58
Speaker 2: truth of what he was saying. And there can be
37:01
Speaker 2: no grounds for supposing that a man knows that which we,
37:04
Speaker 2: without ceasing to be men, could not be supposed to verify.
37:09
Speaker 2: If a chemist tells me, who am no chemist, that
37:12
Speaker 2: a certain substance can be made by putting together other
37:15
Speaker 2: substances in certain proportions, in subjecting them to a known process,
37:20
Speaker 2: I am quite justified in believing this upon his authority,
37:24
Speaker 2: unless I know anything against his character or his judgment,
37:29
Speaker 2: for his professional training is one which tends to encourage
37:32
Speaker 2: veracity in the honest pursuit of truth and to produce
37:36
Speaker 2: a dislike of hasty conclusions and slovenly investigation. And I
37:41
Speaker 2: have reasonable ground for supposing that he knows the truth
37:44
Speaker 2: of what he is saying. For although I am no chemist,
37:47
Speaker 2: I can be made to understand so much of the
37:49
Speaker 2: methods and processes of the science as makes it conceivable
37:53
Speaker 2: to me that, without ceasing to be man, I might
37:56
Speaker 2: verify the statement. I may never actually verify it, or
38:01
Speaker 2: even see any experiment which goes towards verifying it. But
38:05
Speaker 2: still I have quite reason enough to justify me in
38:08
Speaker 2: believing that the verification is within the reach of human
38:11
Speaker 2: appliances and powers, and in particular that it has been
38:15
Speaker 2: actually performed by my informant. His result, the belief to
38:20
Speaker 2: which he has been led by his inquiries, is valid
38:23
Speaker 2: not only for himself, but for others. It is watched
38:27
Speaker 2: and tested by those who are working in the same ground,
38:30
Speaker 2: and who know that no greater service can be rendered
38:32
Speaker 2: to science than the purification of accepted results from the
38:37
Speaker 2: errors which may have crept into them. It is in
38:40
Speaker 2: this way that the result becomes common property, a right
38:43
Speaker 2: object of belief, which is a social affair and matter
38:47
Speaker 2: of public business. Thus it is to be observed that
38:51
Speaker 2: his authority is valid because there are those who question
38:54
Speaker 2: it and verify it. That it is precisely this process
38:58
Speaker 2: of examining and purifying that keeps alive among investigators, the
39:02
Speaker 2: love of that which shall stand all possible tests, the
39:06
Speaker 2: sense of public responsibility as of those whose work, if
39:09
Speaker 2: well done, shall remain as the enduring heritage of mankind.
39:15
Speaker 2: But if my chemist tells me that an atom of
39:17
Speaker 2: oxygen has existed unaltered in weight and rate of vibration
39:22
Speaker 2: throughout all time, I have no right to believe this
39:25
Speaker 2: on his authority, for it is a thing which he
39:28
Speaker 2: cannot know without ceasing to be man. He may quite
39:32
Speaker 2: honestly believe that this statement is a fair inference from
39:35
Speaker 2: his experiments, but in that case his judgment is at fault.
39:41
Speaker 2: A very simple consideration of the character of experiments would
39:44
Speaker 2: show him that they never can lead to results of
39:47
Speaker 2: such a kind, that, being themselves only approximate and limited,
39:51
Speaker 2: they cannot give us knowledge which is exact and universal.
39:56
Speaker 2: No eminence of character and genius can give a man
39:58
Speaker 2: authority enough to justify us in believing him when he
40:02
Speaker 2: makes statements implying exact or universal knowledge. Again, an arctic
40:08
Speaker 2: explorer may tell us that in a given latitude and
40:11
Speaker 2: longitude he has experienced such and such a degree of cold,
40:16
Speaker 2: that the sea was of such a depth in the
40:18
Speaker 2: ice of such a character, we should be quite right
40:22
Speaker 2: to believe him, in the absence of any stain upon
40:25
Speaker 2: his veracity. It is conceivable that we might, without ceasing
40:29
Speaker 2: to be men, go there and verify his statement. It
40:33
Speaker 2: can be tested by the witness of his companions, and
40:36
Speaker 2: there is adequate ground for supposing that he knows the
40:39
Speaker 2: truth of what he is saying. But if an old
40:42
Speaker 2: whaler tells us that the ice is three hundred feet
40:45
Speaker 2: thick all the way up to the pole, we shall
40:48
Speaker 2: not be justified in believing him, For although the statement
40:52
Speaker 2: may be capable of verification by man, it is certainly
40:55
Speaker 2: not capable of verification by him with any means an
40:59
Speaker 2: appliance which he has possessed, And he must have persuaded
41:03
Speaker 2: himself of the truth of it by some means which
41:06
Speaker 2: does not attach any credit to his testimony. Even if
41:10
Speaker 2: therefore the matter affirmed is within the reach of human knowledge,
41:14
Speaker 2: we have no right to accept it upon authority unless
41:17
Speaker 2: it is within the reach of our informants knowledge, What
41:21
Speaker 2: shall we say of that authority more venerable in August
41:25
Speaker 2: than any individual witness the time honored tradition of the
41:28
Speaker 2: human race. An atmosphere of beliefs and conceptions has been
41:32
Speaker 2: formed by the labors and struggles of our forefathers, which
41:36
Speaker 2: enables us to breathe amid the various and complex circumstances
41:40
Speaker 2: of our life. It is around and about us, and
41:43
Speaker 2: within us. We cannot think except in the forms and
41:46
Speaker 2: processes of thought which it supplies. Is it possible to
41:50
Speaker 2: doubt and to test it? And if possible, is it right?
41:55
Speaker 2: We shall find reason to answer that it is not
41:57
Speaker 2: only possible and right, but our bounded duty, that the
42:01
Speaker 2: main purpose of the tradition itself is to supply us
42:04
Speaker 2: with the means of asking questions, of testing and inquiring
42:08
Speaker 2: into things, that if we misuse it and take it
42:11
Speaker 2: as a collection of cut and dried statements to be
42:14
Speaker 2: accepted without further inquiry, we are not only injuring ourselves here,
42:20
Speaker 2: but by refusing to do our part towards the building
42:22
Speaker 2: up of the fabric which shall be inherited by our children,
42:26
Speaker 2: we are tending to cut off ourselves and our race
42:29
Speaker 2: from the human line. Let us first take care to
42:33
Speaker 2: distinguish a kind of tradition which especially requires to be
42:37
Speaker 2: examined and called in question, because it especially shrinks from inquiry.
42:43
Speaker 2: Suppose that a medicine man in Central Africa tells his
42:46
Speaker 2: tribe that a certain powerful medicine in his tent will
42:50
Speaker 2: be propitiated if they kill their cattle, and that the
42:53
Speaker 2: tribe believe him. Whether the medicine was propitiated or not,
42:58
Speaker 2: there are no means of verifying, but the cattle are gone. Still,
43:02
Speaker 2: the belief may be kept up in the tribe that
43:05
Speaker 2: propitiation has been affected in this way, and in a
43:09
Speaker 2: later generation it will be all the easier for another
43:12
Speaker 2: medicine man to persuade them to a similar act. Here,
43:17
Speaker 2: the only reason for belief is that everybody has believed
43:20
Speaker 2: the thing for so long that it must be true.
43:23
Speaker 2: And yet the belief was founded on fraud and has
43:26
Speaker 2: been propagated by credulity. That man will undoubtedly do right
43:31
Speaker 2: and be a friend of men who shall call it
43:33
Speaker 2: in question, and see that there is no evidence for it,
43:36
Speaker 2: help his neighbors to see as he does and even
43:39
Speaker 2: if need be, go into the Holy tent and break
43:43
Speaker 2: the medicine. The rule which should guide us in such
43:47
Speaker 2: cases is simple and obvious enough that the aggregate testimony
43:51
Speaker 2: of our neighbors is subject to the same conditions as
43:53
Speaker 2: the testimony of any one of them. Namely, we have
43:57
Speaker 2: no right to believe a thing true because every but
44:00
Speaker 2: he says so, unless there are good grounds for believing
44:03
Speaker 2: that some one person at least has the means of
44:06
Speaker 2: knowing what is true, and is speaking the truth so
44:10
Speaker 2: far as he knows it. However, many nations and generations
44:14
Speaker 2: of men are brought into the witness box, they cannot
44:17
Speaker 2: testify to anything which they do not know. Every man
44:21
Speaker 2: who has accepted the statement from somebody else without himself
44:25
Speaker 2: testing and verifying it is out of court. His word
44:29
Speaker 2: is worth nothing at all. And when we get back
44:32
Speaker 2: at last to the true birth and beginning of the statement,
44:35
Speaker 2: two serious questions must be disposed of in regard to
44:39
Speaker 2: him who first made it. Was he mistaken in thinking
44:43
Speaker 2: that he knew about this matter? Or was he lying?
44:47
Speaker 2: This last question is unfortunately a very actual and practical one,
44:51
Speaker 2: even to us at this day and in this country,
44:55
Speaker 2: we have no occasion to go to La Selette, or
44:58
Speaker 2: to Central Africa, or to Lord for examples of immoral
45:01
Speaker 2: and debasing superstition. It is only too possible for a
45:06
Speaker 2: child to grow up in London surrounded by an atmosphere
45:09
Speaker 2: of beliefs fit only for the savage, which have in
45:12
Speaker 2: our own time been founded in fraud and propagated by credulity.
45:17
Speaker 2: Laying aside, then such tradition as is handed on without
45:21
Speaker 2: testing by successive generations, let us consider that which is
45:25
Speaker 2: truly built up out of the common experience of mankind.
45:29
Speaker 2: This great fabric is for the guidance of our thoughts
45:32
Speaker 2: and through them of our actions, both in the moral
45:36
Speaker 2: and in the material world. In the moral world, for example,
45:40
Speaker 2: it gives us the conceptions of right in general, of justice,
45:43
Speaker 2: of truth, of beneficence, and the like. These are given
45:48
Speaker 2: as conceptions, not as statements or propositions. They answer to
45:52
Speaker 2: certain definite instincts which are certainly within us. However they
45:56
Speaker 2: came there. That it is right to be beneficent is
45:59
Speaker 2: matter of immediate personal experience. For when a man retires
46:04
Speaker 2: within himself and there finds something wider and more lasting
46:08
Speaker 2: than his solitary personality, which says, I want to do
46:12
Speaker 2: right as well as I want to do good to man.
46:17
Speaker 2: He can verify by direct observation that one instinct is
46:21
Speaker 2: founded upon and agrees fully with the other, and it
46:25
Speaker 2: is his duty so to verify this in all similar statements.
46:30
Speaker 2: The tradition says also at a definite place and time,
46:34
Speaker 2: that such and such actions are just, or true or beneficent.
46:39
Speaker 2: For all such rules, a further inquiry is necessary, since
46:42
Speaker 2: they are sometimes established by an authority other than that
46:46
Speaker 2: of the moral sense founded on experience. Until recently, the
46:50
Speaker 2: moral tradition of our own country, and indeed of all Europe,
46:54
Speaker 2: taught that it was beneficent to give money indiscriminately to beggars.
46:59
Speaker 2: But the questionestioning of this rule and investigation into it,
47:03
Speaker 2: led men to see the true beneficence is that which
47:06
Speaker 2: helps a man to do the work which he is
47:08
Speaker 2: most fitted for, not that which keeps and encourages him
47:12
Speaker 2: in idleness, and that to neglect this distinction in the
47:15
Speaker 2: present is to prepare pauperism and misery for the future.
47:20
Speaker 2: By this testing and discussion, not only has practice been
47:24
Speaker 2: purified and made more beneficent, but the very conception of
47:28
Speaker 2: beneficence has been made wider and wiser now here. The
47:33
Speaker 2: great social heirloom consists of two parts, the instinct of beneficence,
47:38
Speaker 2: which makes a certain side of our nature when predominant
47:42
Speaker 2: wish to do good to men, and the intellectual conception
47:46
Speaker 2: of beneficence, which we can compare with any proposed course
47:50
Speaker 2: of conduct, and ask is this beneficent or not. By
47:55
Speaker 2: the continual asking and answering of such questions, the conception
47:59
Speaker 2: grows in breadth and distinctness, and the instinct becomes strengthened
48:04
Speaker 2: and purified. It appears then that the great use of
48:08
Speaker 2: the conception, the intellectual part of the heirloom, is to
48:11
Speaker 2: enable us to ask questions. That it grows and is
48:15
Speaker 2: kept straight by means of these questions, And if we
48:18
Speaker 2: do not use it for that purpose, we shall gradually
48:21
Speaker 2: lose it altogether, and be left with a mere code
48:24
Speaker 2: of regulations which cannot rightly be called morality at all.
48:29
Speaker 2: Such considerations apply even more obviously and clearly, if possible,
48:34
Speaker 2: to the store of beliefs and conceptions which our fathers
48:37
Speaker 2: have amassed for us. In respect of the material world.
48:41
Speaker 2: We are ready to laugh at the rule of thumb
48:43
Speaker 2: of the Australian who continues to tie his hatchet to
48:47
Speaker 2: the side of the handle, although the Birmingham fitter has
48:50
Speaker 2: made a hole on purpose for him to put the
48:52
Speaker 2: handle in. His people have tied up hatchets so for ages.
48:57
Speaker 2: Who is he that he should set himself up again
49:00
Speaker 2: their wisdom? He has sunk so low that he cannot
49:03
Speaker 2: do what some of them must have done in the
49:05
Speaker 2: far distant past. Call in question an established usage, and
49:10
Speaker 2: invent or learn something better. Yet here in the dim
49:13
Speaker 2: beginning of knowledge, where science and art are one, we
49:17
Speaker 2: find only the same simple rule which applies to the
49:20
Speaker 2: highest and deepest growths of that cosmic tree, to its
49:25
Speaker 2: loftiest flower tipped branches, as well as to the profoundest
49:29
Speaker 2: of its hidden roots. The rule, namely, that what is
49:33
Speaker 2: stored up and handed down to us, is rightly used
49:36
Speaker 2: by those who act as the makers acted when they
49:39
Speaker 2: stored it up. Those who use it to ask further questions,
49:43
Speaker 2: to examine, to investigate, who try honestly and solemnly to
49:47
Speaker 2: find out what is the right way of looking at
49:50
Speaker 2: things and of dealing with them. A question rightly asked
49:54
Speaker 2: is already half answered, said Jacoby. We may add that
49:59
Speaker 2: the method of salut is the other half of the answer,
50:02
Speaker 2: and that the actual result counts for nothing by the
50:05
Speaker 2: side of these two. For an example, let us go
50:09
Speaker 2: to the telegraph, where theory and practice, grown each to
50:13
Speaker 2: years of discretion, are marvelously wetted for the fruitful service
50:17
Speaker 2: of men. Om found that the strength of an electric
50:22
Speaker 2: current is directly proportional to the strength of the battery
50:25
Speaker 2: which produces it, and inversely as the length of the
50:29
Speaker 2: wire along which it has to travel. This is called
50:33
Speaker 2: Ohm's law. But the result, regarded as a statement to
50:37
Speaker 2: be believed, is not the valuable part of it. The
50:41
Speaker 2: first half of the question what relation holds good between
50:45
Speaker 2: these quantities? So put, the question involves already the conception
50:50
Speaker 2: of strength of current and of strength of battery as
50:53
Speaker 2: quantities to be measured and compared. It hints clearly that
50:57
Speaker 2: these are the things to be attended to in the
50:59
Speaker 2: study of electric currents. The second half is the method
51:03
Speaker 2: of investigation. How to measure these quantities, what instruments are
51:07
Speaker 2: required for the experiment, and how are they to be used.
51:12
Speaker 2: The student who begins to learn about electricity is not
51:15
Speaker 2: asked to believe in Olms's law. He is made to
51:18
Speaker 2: understand the question, he is placed before the apparatus, and
51:22
Speaker 2: he is taught to verify it. He learns to do things,
51:26
Speaker 2: not to think. He knows things to use instruments, and
51:29
Speaker 2: to ask questions, not to accept a traditional statement. The
51:34
Speaker 2: question which required a genius to ask it rightly is
51:37
Speaker 2: answered by a tyro. If Olms's law were suddenly lost
51:41
Speaker 2: and forgotten by all men, while the question and the
51:45
Speaker 2: method of solution remained, the result could be rediscovered in
51:48
Speaker 2: an hour. But the result by itself, if known to
51:52
Speaker 2: a people who could not comprehend the value of the
51:55
Speaker 2: question or the means of solving it, would be like
51:58
Speaker 2: a watch in the hands of a savage who could
52:00
Speaker 2: not wind it up, or an iron steamship worked by
52:04
Speaker 2: Spanish engineers. In regard then, to the sacred tradition of humanity,
52:10
Speaker 2: we learn that it consists not in propositions or statements
52:14
Speaker 2: which are to be accepted and believed on the authority
52:17
Speaker 2: of the tradition, but in questions rightly asked, in conceptions
52:22
Speaker 2: which enable us to ask further questions, and in methods
52:25
Speaker 2: of answering questions. The value of all these things depends
52:30
Speaker 2: on their being tested day by day the very sacredness
52:33
Speaker 2: of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and
52:36
Speaker 2: the responsibility of testing it, of purifying and enlarging it
52:40
Speaker 2: to the utmost of our power. He who makes use
52:43
Speaker 2: of its results to stifle his own doubts or to
52:46
Speaker 2: hamper the inquiry of others is guilty of a sacrilege
52:49
Speaker 2: which centuries shall never be able to blot out. When
52:53
Speaker 2: the labors and questionings of honest and brave men shall
52:56
Speaker 2: have built up the fabric of known truth to a
52:59
Speaker 2: glory wry which we in this generation can neither hope
53:02
Speaker 2: for nor imagine. In that pure and holy temple, he
53:06
Speaker 2: shall have no part nor lot, but his name and
53:09
Speaker 2: his work shall be cast out into the darkness of
53:11
Speaker 2: oblivion forever. End of chapter two. Recording by Pamela Krantz.
53:29
Speaker 3: Chapter three of the Ethics of Belief. This is a
53:33
Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
53:38
Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
53:43
Speaker 3: Recording by BEV Stevens. The Ethics of Belief by William
53:49
Speaker 3: Kingden Clifford. Chapter three, The limits of inference, The question
53:56
Speaker 3: in what cases we may believe that which goes beyond
53:59
Speaker 3: our experience is a very large and delicate one, extending
54:03
Speaker 3: to the whole range of scientific method, and requiring a
54:07
Speaker 3: considerable increase in the application of it, before it can
54:11
Speaker 3: be answered with anything approaching to completeness. But one rule,
54:16
Speaker 3: lying on the threshold of the subject of extreme simplicity
54:20
Speaker 3: and vast practical importance, may here be touched upon and
54:24
Speaker 3: shortly laid down. A little reflection will show us that
54:30
Speaker 3: every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond
54:34
Speaker 3: experience when regarded as a guide to our actions. A
54:38
Speaker 3: burnt child dreads the fire because it believes that the
54:42
Speaker 3: fire will burn it to day, just as it did yesterday.
54:46
Speaker 3: But this belief goes beyond experience and assumes that the
54:51
Speaker 3: unknown fire of to day is like the known fire
54:54
Speaker 3: of yesterday. Even the belief that the child was burnt
54:58
Speaker 3: yesterday goes beyond present experience, which contains only the memory
55:04
Speaker 3: of a burning and not the burning itself. It assumes,
55:08
Speaker 3: therefore that this memory is trustworthy, although we know that
55:13
Speaker 3: a memory may often be mistaken. But if it is
55:16
Speaker 3: to be used as a guide to action, as a
55:19
Speaker 3: hint of what the future is to be, it must
55:22
Speaker 3: assume something about that future, namely that it will be
55:26
Speaker 3: consistent with the supposition that the burning really took place yesterday,
55:31
Speaker 3: which is going beyond experience. Even the fundamental I AM,
55:37
Speaker 3: which cannot be doubted, is no guide to action until
55:41
Speaker 3: it takes to itself. I shall be which goes beyond experience.
55:47
Speaker 3: The question is not, therefore, may we believe what goes
55:51
Speaker 3: beyond experience? For this is involved in the very nature
55:55
Speaker 3: of belief. But how far and in what manner may
56:00
Speaker 3: we add to our experience in forming our beliefs? And
56:05
Speaker 3: an answer of utter simplicity and universality is suggested by
56:10
Speaker 3: the example we have taken. A burnt child dreads the fire.
56:15
Speaker 3: We may go beyond experience by assuming that what we
56:18
Speaker 3: do not know is like what we do know, or,
56:22
Speaker 3: in other words, we may add to our experience on
56:25
Speaker 3: the assumption of a uniformity in nature. What this uniformity
56:29
Speaker 3: precisely is how we grow in the knowledge of it
56:33
Speaker 3: from generation to generation. These are questions which for the
56:37
Speaker 3: present we lay aside, being content to examine two instances
56:41
Speaker 3: which may serve to make plainer the nature of the rule.
56:46
Speaker 3: From certain observations made with the spectroscope. We infer the
56:50
Speaker 3: existence of hydrogen in the sun. By looking into the spectroscope.
56:54
Speaker 3: When the Sun is shining on its slit, we see
56:57
Speaker 3: certain definite bright lines, and experiments made upon bodies on
57:02
Speaker 3: the Earth have taught us that when these bright lines
57:05
Speaker 3: are seen, hydrogen is the source of them. We assume then,
57:10
Speaker 3: that the unknown bright lines in the sun are like
57:14
Speaker 3: the known bright lines of the laboratory, and that hydrogen
57:18
Speaker 3: in the Sun behaves as hydrogen under similar circumstances would
57:22
Speaker 3: behave on the Earth. But are we not trusting our
57:27
Speaker 3: spectroscope too much? Surely, having found it to be trustworthy
57:32
Speaker 3: for terrestrial substances where its statements can be verified by man,
57:37
Speaker 3: we are justified in accepting its testimony in other like cases,
57:42
Speaker 3: but not when it gives us information about things in
57:45
Speaker 3: the Sun where its testimony cannot be directly verified by man. Certainly,
57:51
Speaker 3: we want to know a little more before this inference
57:54
Speaker 3: can be justified, and fortunately we do know this. The
57:59
Speaker 3: spectroscope testifies to exactly the same thing in the two cases,
58:04
Speaker 3: namely that light vibrations of a certain rate are being
58:08
Speaker 3: sent through it. Its construction is such that if it
58:12
Speaker 3: were wrong about this in one case, it would be
58:15
Speaker 3: wrong in the other. When we come to look into
58:19
Speaker 3: the matter, we find that we have really assumed the
58:22
Speaker 3: matter of the sun to be like the matter of
58:24
Speaker 3: the Earth, made up of a certain number of distinct substances,
58:29
Speaker 3: and that each of these, when very hot, has a
58:32
Speaker 3: distinct rate of vibration by which it may be recognized
58:36
Speaker 3: and singled out from the rest. But this is the
58:39
Speaker 3: kind of assumption which we are justified in using when
58:42
Speaker 3: we add to our experience. It is an assumption of
58:47
Speaker 3: uniformity in nature, and can only be checked by comparison
58:51
Speaker 3: with many similar assumptions which we have to make in
58:54
Speaker 3: other such cases. But is this a true belief of
58:58
Speaker 3: the existence of hydrogen in the sun. Can it help
59:02
Speaker 3: in the right guidance of human action? Certainly not if
59:06
Speaker 3: it is accepted on unworthy grounds and without some understanding
59:11
Speaker 3: of the process by which it is got at. But
59:14
Speaker 3: when this process is taken in as the ground of
59:17
Speaker 3: the belief, it becomes a very serious and practical matter.
59:22
Speaker 3: For if there is no hydrogen in the sun, the spectroscope,
59:26
Speaker 3: that is to say, the measurement of rates of vibration
59:30
Speaker 3: must be an uncertain guide in recognizing different substances, and
59:34
Speaker 3: consequently it ought not to be used in chemical analysis,
59:39
Speaker 3: in essaying, for example, to the great saving of time, trouble,
59:44
Speaker 3: and money. Whereas the acceptance of the spectroscopic method as
59:49
Speaker 3: trustworthy has enriched us not only with new metals, which
59:53
Speaker 3: is a great thing, but with new processes of investigation,
59:57
Speaker 3: which is vastly greater. For another example, let us consider
1:00:02
Speaker 3: the way in which we infer the truth of an
1:00:04
Speaker 3: historical event, say the siege of Syracuse in the Peloponnesian War.
1:00:10
Speaker 3: Our experience is that manuscripts exist which are said to
1:00:14
Speaker 3: be and which call themselves manuscripts of the history of Thucydides,
1:00:20
Speaker 3: that in other manuscripts stated to be by later historians,
1:00:24
Speaker 3: he is described as living during the time of the war,
1:00:28
Speaker 3: and that books supposed to date from the revival of
1:00:31
Speaker 3: learning tell us how these manuscripts had been preserved and
1:00:35
Speaker 3: were then acquired. We find also that men do not,
1:00:40
Speaker 3: as a rule, forge books and histories without a special motive.
1:00:45
Speaker 3: We assume that in this respect men in the past
1:00:47
Speaker 3: were like men in the present, and we observe that
1:00:51
Speaker 3: in this case no special motive was present. That is,
1:00:55
Speaker 3: we add to our experience on the assumption of a
1:00:58
Speaker 3: uniformity in the character of men. Because our knowledge of
1:01:02
Speaker 3: this uniformity is far less complete and exact than our
1:01:07
Speaker 3: knowledge of that which obtains in physics. Inferences of the
1:01:12
Speaker 3: historical kind are more precarious and less exact than inferences
1:01:17
Speaker 3: in many other sciences. But if there is any special
1:01:22
Speaker 3: reason to suspect the character of the persons who wrote
1:01:25
Speaker 3: or transmitted certain books, the case becomes altered. If a
1:01:31
Speaker 3: group of documents give internal evidence that they were produced
1:01:34
Speaker 3: among people who forged books in the names of others,
1:01:39
Speaker 3: and who, in describing events, suppressed those things which did
1:01:43
Speaker 3: not suit them, while they amplified such as did suit them,
1:01:48
Speaker 3: who not only committed these crimes but gloried in them
1:01:52
Speaker 3: as proofs of humility and zeal. Then we must say
1:01:56
Speaker 3: that upon such documents no true historical infram can be founded,
1:02:01
Speaker 3: but only unsatisfactory conjecture. We may then add to our
1:02:07
Speaker 3: experience on the assumption of a uniformity in nature. We
1:02:11
Speaker 3: may fill in our picture of what is and has
1:02:14
Speaker 3: been as experience gives it us, in such a way
1:02:18
Speaker 3: as to make the whole consistent with this uniformity and
1:02:23
Speaker 3: practically demonstrative inference. That which gives us a right to
1:02:27
Speaker 3: believe in the result of it is a clear showing
1:02:30
Speaker 3: that in no other way than by the truth of
1:02:33
Speaker 3: this result can the uniformity of nature be saved. No evidence, therefore,
1:02:40
Speaker 3: can justify us in believing the truth of a statement
1:02:43
Speaker 3: which is contrary to or outside of, the uniformity of nature.
1:02:49
Speaker 3: If our experience is such that it cannot be filled
1:02:52
Speaker 3: up consistently with uniformity, all we have a right to
1:02:56
Speaker 3: conclude is that there is something wrong somewhere. But the
1:03:01
Speaker 3: possibility of inference is taken away. We must rest in
1:03:06
Speaker 3: our experience and not go beyond it at all. If
1:03:10
Speaker 3: an event really happened which was not a part of
1:03:12
Speaker 3: the uniformity of nature, it would have two properties. No
1:03:17
Speaker 3: evidence could give the right to believe it to any
1:03:20
Speaker 3: except those whose actual experience it was, and no inference
1:03:25
Speaker 3: worthy of belief could be founded upon it at all.
1:03:30
Speaker 3: Are we then bound to believe that nature is absolutely
1:03:34
Speaker 3: and universally uniform. Certainly not. We have no right to
1:03:39
Speaker 3: believe anything of this kind. The rule only tells us
1:03:43
Speaker 3: that in forming beliefs which go beyond our experience. We
1:03:48
Speaker 3: may make the assumption that nature is practically uniform so
1:03:52
Speaker 3: far as we are concerned within the range of human
1:03:56
Speaker 3: action and verification. We may form by help of this
1:04:00
Speaker 3: assumption actual beliefs beyond it, only those hypotheses which serve
1:04:07
Speaker 3: for the more accurate asking of questions. To sum up,
1:04:12
Speaker 3: we may believe what goes beyond our experience only when
1:04:16
Speaker 3: it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that
1:04:20
Speaker 3: what we do not know is like what we know.
1:04:25
Speaker 3: We may believe the statement of another person when there
1:04:28
Speaker 3: is reasonable ground for supposing that he knows the matter
1:04:32
Speaker 3: of which he speaks, and that he is speaking the
1:04:35
Speaker 3: truth so far as he knows it. It is wrong
1:04:39
Speaker 3: in all cases to believe on insufficient evidence, and where
1:04:44
Speaker 3: it is presumption to doubt and to investigate there it
1:04:48
Speaker 3: is worse than presumption to believe. End of Chapter three,
1:04:55
Speaker 3: end of The Ethics of Belief by William Kingden Clifford