6Groundlessbeliefs

1、6. Groundless BeliefsIn future we are going to follow the practice-until it become a habit- ofclassifying propositions according to theirgrounds.Of every statement we come across, weshall ask :HOW DO WE KONWTHAT?WHAT REASON HAVE WE FORBELIEVING THAT？ON WHAT GROUNGIS THAT STATEMENT BASED? Probably we

2、shall be astonished at the number of propositionsmet with in everyday life whichwe shall find it necessary to class asgroundless. They rest upon mere tradition, oreven a shadow of proofIt may be a belief which we originally accepted asa result of simple suggestion and we havecontinued to hold it eve

3、r since. It has nowon somebodyre assertion unsupported bybecome one of our regular habits ofthought.Perhaps somebody-somewhere-sometime told us a certain thing,and quite uncritically we accepted and believed it.Perhaps it was way back in our earlychildhood-before we had even developed thepower of qu

4、estioning anything that might be toldto us .Many of our strongest convictions wereestablished then；and now ,in about life, we findit most difficult even to question their truth. Theyseem to us obviously true.But if the staunchest Rome Catholic and thestaunchest Presbyterian had been exchangedwhen in

5、fants, and if they had been brought upwith home and all other influences reversed wecan have very little doubt what the result wouldhave been. It is consistent with all our knowledgeof psychology to conclude that each would havegrown up holding exactly the opposite beliefs tothose he holds now.and e

6、ach would then haveleft as sure of the truth of his opinion as he nowfeels-of truth of theopposite opinion. The same thing is true, ofcourse, of many beliefs other than those of areligious nature. If we had grown up in acommunity where polygamy or head-hunting orinfanticide , or gladiatorial fightin

7、g , or duelling,was regarded as the normal and naturalthing-then we should have grown up to regard itas obviously natural and perfectly moral andproper. If an English baby had been adopted andbrought up in a German home, and had grown upwith no knowledge that his parents were English,all the sentime

8、nts and beliefs of that personwould be German and not English. Many ofour beliefs-many of our most deeply-rooted andfundamental convictions-are held simply as aresults of the fact that we happen to have beenbrought up”to them.Of course we do not cease, when we cease to bechildren, to adopt new belie

9、fs on meresuggestion. We continue doing it, more or lessunconsciously all our lives: hence, to take onlythe most striking examples, the enormousinfluence of newspapers and the effectiveness ofskilful advertising. Much of what passes as suchis not, strictly, thinking at all. It is the merep“arroting”

10、of idesa picked up by chance andadopted as our own without question. Mostpeople, most of the time, are mere parrots. Butas we leave childhood, we tend to accept onlysuch new ideas as fit in with the ideas we alreadyhold; and all conflicting ideas seem tous“obviously”absurd.Propositions that are acce

11、pted simply because“everybodysays so,”must be classed underthe same heading. The dogma may not be that ofany particular individual: it may be a dogmaticstatement which has been passed from oneperson to another, from generation to generation,perhaps for hundreds-perhaps forthousands-of years. It may

12、be part of thetraditional belief of the people or the race. Inthat case, it is part of our social inheritance from someperiod in the past. But we should fully face the fact thatbeliefs which are merely inherited from the past must haveoriginated at a time when men knew much less than theyknow today.

13、 So the fact a belief is“old”is noargumiennits favour .We need especially to be on our guard when we comeacross propositions which seem to be“obviously”true.When we find ourselves entertaining an opinion aboutwhich there is a feeling that even to enquire into it wouldbe absurd, unnecessary, undesira

14、ble, or wicked-we mayknow that that opinion is a non-rational one.When we are tempted to say that any general truth is so“obvious th”at it would be absurd even to question it,we should remember that the whole history of thedevelopment ofhuman thought has been full of cases of such“obvioustruths”brea

15、king down when examined in the light ofincreasing knowledge and reason. For instance, for agesnothing could have seemed more obvious, more utterlybeyond question than the proposition that slavery wasnatural, reasonable, necessary, and right . Some kinds ofmen were“obviously” “slaves by nature.”Todou

16、bt it was impossible.Again for more than two thousands years, it was“impossibleto conceive”the planets as moving in pathsother than circles. The circle was“obviously th”eperfect figure; and so it was“natural”and“inevitable”to suppose the planets moved in circles.The age-long struggle of the greatest

17、 intellects in the worldto shake off that assumption is one of the marvels ofhistory.It was formerly“obvious”that-t-h-aenhdeartnot the brain-was the organ of consciousness.To most people today it seems equally“obvious”thatwe think with our brains. Many modern persons find it verydifficult to credit

18、the fact that men can ever have supposedotherwise. Yet-they did.That the earth must be flat, formerly seemed so obviousand self-evident that the very suggestion of any otherpossibility would have been-and was-regarded as ajoke.It was for two thousand years“takenfor granted”as“obvious th”at a heavy w

19、eight must fall faster than alight one. An assumed or dogmatic proposition which hadbeen universally accepted as“obvious”; and whicwhen challenged, was supported by reference to a dogmaof Aristotle. Until Galileo actually demonstrated thecontrary (see Noets 5 on p173), nothing could haveseemed more

20、beyond possibility or doubt.Propositions which are accepted blindly, without questionon the grounds of mere assumption or dogma, need to befrankly recognized as such. Progress in human thoughtseems to consist mainly in getting rid of such ideas.Other beliefs are held through self-interest. Modernpsy

21、chology leaves us no room for doubt on this point. Weadopt and cling to some beliefs because-or partlybecause-it“pays”us to do so. But as a rule, theperson concerned is about the last person in the world tobe able to recognize this in himself. Indeed, he wouldprobably be highly indignant if told of

22、what anyone familiarwith modern psychology can recognize so plainly. It wouldbe quite wrong to attribute all opinions-even politicalopinions- to self-interest. But it would be equally wrong todeny that this is one potent factor.“Se-lifnterest is”to be understood first in the ordinarysense, as referr

23、ing to a man earning his livelihoodand acquiring wealth. But we may extend the termto cover also his interest in social position; popularity withhis fellows; the respect and goodwill of those whoserespect and goodwill he values. It covers his interest in hisown career; in whatever prestige he enjoys

24、 as one of theleaders-or at least as a valued supporter-of somemovement or institution, some religious body, some otherkind of society or group. There is many a man who isunconsciously compelled to cling to a belief because he isa“somebody”in some cir-c-l-eand if he were toabandon that belief, he wo

25、uld find himself nobody at all.Putting it broadly, we should always suspect any of ouropinions when we recognize that our happiness depends,directly or indirectly, upon our continuing to holdthem-when we might lose any thi ng, material orotherwise, by cha nging our opinion.Somewhat similar is the ac

26、ceptanee of an opinion throughthe desire-probably not recognized by the persons waconcerned-to justify his own n ature, his own positi on, orhis own behaviour. The coward can so easily adopt aphilosophy which seems to justify cowardice-though, ofcourse,“cowardice”isnot the name he gives it! The lazy

27、 and bungling personcan adopt a set of opinions which prove to his satisfacti onthat e grapes“th are sour -the“grapes”beingthe rewards thatmore en ergetic and compete nt men can win.Many groundless opinions are held through sen time ntalassociati ons. The thought is associated withmemories-pleasa nt

28、 or un pleasa nt as the case may be-of particular pers ons who held similar opinions. It isfound that many a man who in childhood was hostile to hisfather, in after life is always prejudiced against whateveropinions his father used to express. And conversely in thecase of one who has pleasant recoll

29、ections of his father,his mother, a teacher perhaps, or some other person whoplayed a big part in his early life.In adult life, as we have often observed, a bitter quarrelmay change a mansopinion entirely. Antagonism to aman usually produces some antagonism to his opinions;and the bitterness felt ag

30、ainst the man usually spreads tothe idea for which he stands. What keen satisfaction wefind in belittling the opinions, or attacking the opinions, ofsomebody of whom we are jealous, or of somebodyagainst whom we bear a grudge! But, on the other hand, itis equally true that friendly feelings to a man

31、 have an effectin disposing us to feel friendly to his views.Other opinions again are determined by what we may bestcalled Fashion. To take one example: how largely ouropinions on the merits of certain authors, or poets, orcomposers, are dictated merely by fashion! But the effectof fashion is very m

32、uch wider than that: we trace it almosteverywhere, in every field of thought. We tend verystrongly to feel and to believe as others are feeling andbelieving. Not all others, perhaps; but others of our ownset.But we do not, as a rule, continue all our lives changing oursentiments and opinions with ev

33、ery change of fashion.Sooner or later our minds become fixed. Many a manholds his opinions today-because they happened to be infashion ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years ago.Once an opinion is accepted, whatever be the cause of itsacceptance, it has a strong tendency to persist. Every timewe

34、 think alonga particular thought-pattern, makes it easier for us to thinkthe same way again. It is quite legitimate to speak of“habits”of tThhoeught.“brain path”becomes so well worn; the pattern ofbrain-centres becomes so well connected up by continualuse, that nerve current finds a route of practic

35、ally noresistance, and so it always takes almost exactly the samecourse.We all know the person who has a string of stockanecdotes. We all know too the person who has certainstock arguments and opinions which he expresses, almostin the same words, whenever he receives thecue.”“We all know men and wom

36、en whose minds worklike gramophones. Put them on to the“record”aboutthe good old days ; or about prohibition禁酒令(See note7 on P173); or about the wicked capitalist; or about thelazy and improvident workers; or about the country goingto the dogs; or about the modern girl; or some long,tedious anecdote about what I saidto him, and what he said to me, and I said and hesaidand the n I told him straight All we have to do is tostart him off-and nothing on earth can stop him