Reason may be a small force, but it is constant, and works always in one direction, while the forces of unreason destroy one another in futile strife.
— Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), The Harm That Good Men Do, 1926.
[The universe] is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.
— Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), The Assayer, 1623.
Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630):
My aim is to show that the heavenly machine is not a kind of divine, live being, but a kind of clockwork … in so far as nearly all the manifold motions are caused by a most simple, magnetic, and material force, just as all motions of the clock are caused by a simple weight.
(Letter to Hans Herwart)
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543):
All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe. …
[And the Earth] performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion.
(Commentariolus, 1514)
The harmony of the whole world teaches us their truth, if only — as they say — we would look at the thing with both eyes.
(On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres, 1543)
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546):
People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon.
Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best.
This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.
John Calvin (1509 – 64):
Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?
Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430):
There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger.
This is the disease of curiosity.
It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature.
Those secrets:(Confessions, Book X, Chapter 35)
- which are beyond our understanding,
- which can avail us nothing, and
- which man should not wish to learn.
John Locke (1632 - 1704):
Good men are men still liable to mistakes, and are sometimes warmly engaged in errors, which they take for divine truths, shining in their minds with the clearest light. …
[Thus, it becomes] all men to maintain peace and the common offices of humanity and friendship in the diversity of opinions, since we cannot reasonably expect that any one should readily arid obsequiously quit his own opinion, and embrace ours with a blind resignation to an authority which the understanding of man acknowledges not. …
For where is the man that has uncontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns …
(Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690)
Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)
Science does not aim at establishing immutable truths and eternal dogmas: its aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved.
(ABC of Relativity, 4th Edition, 1925, p 113)
Philosophers have too often … permitted themselves to pronounce on empirical questions, and found themselves, as a result, in disastrous conflict with well-attested facts.
(p 13)
It is a commonplace that happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly; and it would seem that the same is true of the good.
In thought, at any rate, those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
(Our Knowledge of the External World, 1914 / 2009, p 23)
The growth of electronic and communication engineering … is transforming the world under our very eyes in a manner more radical [than even the industrial revolution.]
(The Wisdom of the West, MacDonald, 1959, p 300)
If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it.
If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence.
The men who advocate an unpopular reform are exceptional in disinterestedness and zeal for the public good; but those who hold power after the reform has been carried out are likely to belong, in the main, to the ambitious executive type which has in all ages possessed itself of the government of nations.
And this type has never shown itself tolerant of opposition or friendly to freedom.
The glorification of the State, and the doctrine that it is every citizen's duty to serve the State, are radically against progress and against liberty.
The State, though at present a source of much evil, is also a means to certain good things, and will be needed so long as violent and destructive impulses remain common.
But it is MERELY a means, and a means which needs to be very carefully and sparingly used if it is not to do more harm than good.
It is not the State, but the community, the worldwide community of all human beings present and future, that we ought to serve.
And a good community does not spring from the glory of the State, but
- from the unfettered development of individuals:
- from happiness in daily life,
- from congenial work giving opportunity for whatever constructiveness each man or woman may possess,
- from free personal relations embodying love and taking away the roots of envy in thwarted capacity from affection, and above all
- from the joy of life and its expression in the spontaneous creations of art and science.
It is the individual in whom all that is good must be realized, and the free growth of the individual must be the supreme end of a political system which is to re-fashion the world.
(Proposed Roads to Freedom, 1918 / 2014)
Sceptical Essays (1928)
As war becomes more scientific it becomes more expensive, so that the leading financiers of the world, if they combined, could decide the issue by giving or withholding loans.
And by the sort of pressure which has been brought to bear upon Germany since the Treaty of Versailles they could secure the virtual disarmament of any group that they dislike.
In this way they would gradually come to control all the large armed forces of the world.
(p 204)
[If] our civilisation continues much longer to pursue the interests of the rich, it is doomed.
It is because I do not desire the collapse of civilisation that I am a socialist.
(p 213)
Perhaps in time men may come to feel that intelligence is an asset to a community, but I cannot say that I see much sign of any movement in this direction.
(p 201)
Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because,
- owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread information, and
- owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.
It may be laid down broadly that irrationalism, ie, disbelief in objective fact, arises almost always from the desire
- to assert something for which there is no evidence, or
- to deny something for which there is very good evidence.
The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this:
- that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain;
- that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and
- that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.
Understanding of human nature must be the basis of any real improvement in human life.
Science has done wonders in mastering the laws of the physical world, but our own nature is much less understood, as yet, than the nature of stars and electrons.
When science learns to understand human nature, it will be able to bring a happiness into our lives which machines and the physical sciences have failed to create.
(p 70)
We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to [blame] when we suffer.
It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.
For this reason, no political party can acquire any driving force except through hatred …
If so-and-so’s wickedness is the sole cause of our misery, let us punish so-and-so and we shall be happy.
(p 114)
I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out.
I do not believe that, on the balance, religious belief has been a force for good.
Although I am prepared to admit that in certain times and places it has had some good effects, I regard it as belonging
- to the infancy of human reason, and
- to a stage of development which we are now outgrowing.
None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.
The methods of increasing the degree of truth in our beliefs are well known; they consist in
- hearing all sides,
- trying to ascertain all the relevant facts,
- controlling our own bias by discussion with people who have the opposite bias, and
- cultivating a readiness to discard any hypothesis which has proved inadequate.
(p 129)
There are two simple principles which, if they were adopted, would solve almost all social problems.
- The first is that education should have for one of its aims to teach people only to believe propositions when there is some reason to think that they are true.
- The second is that jobs should be given solely for fitness to do the work.
With regard to any science, there are two kinds of effects which it may have.
- On the one hand, experts may make inventions or discoveries which can be utilised by the holders of power.
- On the other hand, the science may influence imagination, and so alter people’s analogies and expectations.
(p 174)
[The] individualist philosophy to which [an American] is accustomed prevents him from imagining that there is anything to be gained by collective action.
There is, therefore, no effective opposition to the holders of power, who remain free to enjoy the advantages of a social system which gives them wealth and world-wide influence. …
In a stable social system there must be some method of making the less fortunate acquiesce in their lot, and this is usually some kind of creed.
But in order to secure widespread acceptance, a creed has to offer advantages to the whole community sufficiently great to compensate for the injustices which it condones.
In America, [Capitalism] offers:
- technical progress, and
- [an] increase in the general standard of material comfort.
(p 192)
[At the] latest, some time during the twenty-first century, there must be either a cataclysm or a central authority controlling the whole world.
I shall assume that civilised mankind will have enough sense, or that America will have enough power, to prevent a cataclysm involving a return to barbarism.
(p 204)
[It] will become essential to the preservation of peace and well-being that the backward nations shall limit the increase of population, as the more civilised nations are already doing.
Those who in principle oppose birth control are either incapable of arithmetic or else in favour of war, pestilence and famine as permanent features of human life. …
I believe that the problem of organising the world as a single economic and political unit will have to be solved before questions of justice can be tackled uccessfully.
I am an international socialist, but I expect to see internationalism realised sooner than Socialism.
(p 206)
Killing Your Way to Paradise
Odo of Châtillon (c1035 – 99) [Pope Urban II, 1088 – 99]:
[Let] this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God:
It is the will of God!(Summons to the First Crusade, Council of Clermont, 1095)
Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970):
The Anabaptists repudiated all law, since they held that the good man will be guided at every moment by the Holy Spirit, who cannot be bound by formulas.
From this premiss they arrive at communism and sexual promiscuity; they were, therefore, exterminated after a heroic resistance.
(p 20)
Gradually weariness resulting from the wars of religion led to the growth of belief in religious toleration, which was one of the sources of the movement which developed into eighteenth- and nineteenth-century liberalism.
The Thirty Years' War persuaded everybody that neither Protestants nor Catholics could be completely victorious …
(A History of Western Philosophy, 1945/61, pp 510-1)
Steven Pinker (1954):
The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, [was decried by Pope Innocent X as] "null, void, invalid, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, [and] empty of meaning and effect for all time."
(p 143)
In the 13th century the Cathars of southern France embraced the Albigensian heresy, according to which there are two gods, one of good and one of evil.
An infuriated papacy, in collusion with the king of France, sent waves of armies to the region [to eradicate them.]
(The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, 2011, pp 140-1)
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546):
[The Jews should be dealt with in the same fashion as a surgeon treats a gangrenous limb:]
Cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. …
Burn down their synagogues …
[Deal] harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying 3,000 lest the whole people perish …
If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and all their other vices and thus merit God's wrath and be damned with them.
… I advise that:
- usury be prohibited to them, and …
- all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping.
For it is not fitting that they should … idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting and, on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat.
(On the Jews and Their Lies, 1542)
Death Tolls of Christian Wars and Massacres(Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, 2011, note 28, pp 140-1 & 704, adapted) | |
| Thirty Years’ War | 7,500,000 |
| Crusades | 3,000,000 |
| Huguenot Wars | 2,800,000 |
| Albigensian Crusade | 450,000 |
| Spanish Inquisition | 350,000 |
An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1943)
The follies of our own times are easier to bear when they are seen against the background of past follies. …
Venereal disease is God's punishment for sin.
It is true that, through a guilty husband, this punishment may fall on an innocent woman and her children, but this is a mysterious dispensation of Providence, which it would be impious to question. …
Since it is the appointed penalty for sin, all measures for its avoidance are also sin—except, of course, a virtuous life. …
Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, in their old age, laid it down that all sexual intercourse is wicked, even in marriage and with view to offspring. …
We are told that sin consists in disobedience to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent.
If He is, nothing contrary to His will can occur; therefore when the sinner disobeys His commands, He must have intended this to happen. …
[So, if it is God that] causes men to sin, [how can it be] fair to send them to hell for what they cannot [help? …]
When anaesthetics were discovered, pious people considered them an attempt to evade the will of God.
It was pointed out, however, that when God extracted Adam's rib He put him into a deep sleep
This proved that anaesthetics are all right for men; women, however, ought to suffer, because of the curse of Eve.
In the West votes for women proved this doctrine mistaken, but in Japan, to this day, women in childbirth are not allowed any alleviation through anaesthetics.
As the Japanese do not believe in Genesis, this piece of sadism must have some other justification. …
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. …
No one can deny … that it is easy, given military power, to produce a population of fanatical lunatics. …
By instilling nonsense, [education] unifies populations and generates collective enthusiasm.
If all governments taught the same nonsense, the harm would not be so great.
Unfortunately each has its own brand, and the diversity serves to produce hostility between the devotees of different creeds. …
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Modern theological opponents of birth control … pretend to think that God will provide, however many mouths there may be to feed.
They ignore the fact that He has never done so hitherto, but has left mankind exposed to periodical famines in which millions died of hunger. …
By their own theology, most of the children whom their opposition to birth control will cause to exist will go to hell.
We must suppose, therefore, that they oppose the amelioration of life on earth because they think it a good thing that many millions should suffer eternal torment. …
Thinking that you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone. …
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because
- in arithmetic there is knowledge, but
- in theology there is only opinion.
[You] will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. …
When the Romans won victories in the Punic wars, the Carthaginians became persuaded that their misfortunes were due to a certain laxity which had crept into the worship of Moloch.
Moloch liked having children sacrificed to him, and preferred them aristocratic; but the noble families of Carthage had adopted the practice of surreptitiously substituting plebeian children for their own offspring.
This, it was thought, had displeased the god, and at the worst moments even the most aristocratic children were duly consumed in the fire.
Strange to say, the Romans were victorious in spite of this democratic reform on the part of their enemies. …
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. …
[So] it is to be feared that the Nazis, as defeat draws nearer, will increase the intensity of their campaign for exterminating Jews.
Fear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to justify cruelty.
In Praise of Aristocracy
Aristotle (384 – 22 BCE):
Citizens should not lead the life of mechanics or tradesmen, for such a life is ignoble and inimical to virtue.
Scott Stephens:
I do think that social hierarchies are important.
I do think that according roles of public significance the honorability, the nobility that's due [to] them;
I do think that's important.
I think that de Tocqueville was right, that democratic society ultimately cannot survive without some latent sense of an aristocracy; that there is a virtuous class of people who have been set aside to be uncommonly selfless …
Judith Brett (1949) [Emeritus Professor of Politics, Latrobe University]:
I think all that stuff about aristocracy, that [Scott] was going on about, is just rubbish …
[What] we want in a democracy, are politicians who are both representative and larger than life … whereas, the aristocracy were [removed, they] were a different class of people.
We live in democracies; there's no going back to that.
One of the skills … of, say, John Howard, was that he was both able to represent and be recognizable.
People want to be able to recognize in their politicians someone they can … understand and identify with.
Because then, they think, that politician may understand them …
( Faith in politics: Can it be restored?, The Minefield, 6 August 2015)
