2021年1月23日发(作者：trail)
Groundless Beliefs
A. E. Mander

future
we
are
going
to
follow
the
practice
—
until
it
becomes
a
habit
—
of
classifying
propositions according to their grounds. Of every statement we come across, we shall ask: “How
do we know that? What reason have we for
believing that? On what …ground? is that statement
based?” Probably we shall be astonished at the number of propositions met with in everyday life
which
we
shall
find
it
necessary
to
class
as
groundless.
They
rest
upon
mere
tradition,
or
on
somebody?s bare assertion unsupported by even a shadow of proof.
2.
It may be a belief which we originally accepted as a result of simple “suggestion,” and we
have
continued
to
hold
it
ever
since.
It
has
no
w
become
one
of
our
regular
habits
of
thought.
Perhaps
somebody-somewhere-sometime
told
us
a
certain
thing,
and
quite
uncritically,
we
accepted and believed it. Perhaps it was way back in our early childhood
—
before we had even
developed
the
power
of
questioning
anything
that
might
be
told
to
us.
Many
of
our
strongest
convictions were established then; and now, in adult life, we find it most difficult even to question
their truth. They seem to us “obviously” true.

if the staunchest Roman Catholic and the staunchest Presbyterian had been exchanged
when infants, and if they had been brought up with home and all other influences reversed, we can
had very little doubt what the result would have been. It is consistent with all our knowledge of
psychology
to
conclude
that
each
would
have
grown
up
holding
exactly
the
opposite
beliefs
to
those he holds now, and each would then have felt as sure of the truth of his opinion as he now
feels
—
of the truth of the opposite opinion. The same thing is true, of course, of many beliefs other
than
those
of
a
religious
nature.
If
we
had
grown
up
in
a
community
where
polygamy
or
head-hunting, or infanticide, or gladiatorial fighting, or dueling, was regarded as the normal and
natural
thing
—then
we
should
have
grown
up
to
regard
it
as
“obviously”
natural
and
perfectly
moral
and
proper.
Many
of
our
beliefs
—
many
of
our
most
deeply-rooted
and
fundamental
convictions
—are held simply as a result of the fact that we happen to have been “brought up” to
them.
course we do not cease, when we cease to be children, to adopt new beliefs on mere
suggestion. We continue doing it, more or less unconsciously all our lives; hence, to take only the
most
striking
examples,
the
enormous
influence
of
newspapers
and
the
effectiveness
of
skilful
advertising. Much of what passes as such is not, strictly, thinkin
g at all. It is the mere “parroting”
of ideas picked up by chance and adopted as our own without question. Most people, most of the
time, are mere parrots. But as we leave childhood, we tend to accept only such new ideas as fit in
with the ideas we already
hold; and all conflicting ideas seem to us “obviously” absurd.

5.
Propositions that are accepted simply because “everybody says so,” must be classed under
the same heading. The dogma may not be that of any particular individual: it may be a dogmatic
statement
which
has
been
passed
from
one
person
to
another,
from
generation
to
generation,
perhaps for hundreds
—
perhaps for thousands
—
of years. It may be part of the traditional belief of
the people or the race. In that case, it is part of our social inheritance from some period in the past.
But we should fully face the fact that beliefs which are merely inherited from the past must have
originated at a time when men knew much less than they know today. So the fact that a belief is
“old” is no argument in its fav
our.
need especially to be on our guard when we come across propositions which seem to be
“obviously” true.

we find ourselves entertaining an opinion about which there is a feeling that even to
enquire
into
it
would
be
absurd,
unnecessary,
undesirable,
or
wicked
—
we
may
know
that
that
opinion is a non-rational one.

8.
When we are tempted to say that any general truth is so “obvious” that it would be absurd
even
to
question
it,
we
should
remember
that
the
whole
history
of
the
development
of
human
thought has been full of cases of such “obvious truths” breaking down when examined in the light
of
increasing
knowledge
and
reason.
For
instance,
for
ages
nothing
could
have
seemed
more
obvious, more utterly beyond question that the proposition that slavery was natural, reasonable,
necessary, and right. Some
kinds of men were “obviously” “slaves by nature.” To doubt it was
impossible.
9.
Again
for
more
than
two
thousand
years,
it
was
“impossible
to
conceive”
the
planets
as
moving in paths other than circle
s. The circle was “obviously” the perfect figure; and so it was
“natural” and “inevitable” to suppose that the planets moved in circles. The age
-long struggle of
the greatest intellects in the world to shake off that assumption is one of the marvels of history.
10.
It
was
formerly
“obvious”
that
the
heart—
and
not
the
brain
was
the
organ
of
consciousness. To most people today it seems equally “obvious” that we think with our brains.
Many
modern
persons
find
it
very
difficult
to
credit
the
fact
that
men
can
even
have
supposed
otherwise. Yet
—
they did.

the
earth
must
be
flat,
formerly
seemed
so
obvious
and
self-evident
that
the
very
suggestion of any other possibility would have been
—
and was
—
regarded as a joke.
12.
It was for two thousand years “taken for granted” as “obvious” that a heavy weight must
fall
faster
than
a
light
one.
An
assumed
or
dogmatic
proposition
which
had
been
universally
accepted as “obvious;” and which, when challenged, was supported by reference to a dogma of
Aristotle.
Until
Galileo
actually
demonstrated
the
contrary,
nothing
could
have
seemed
more
beyond possibility or doubt.
itions
which
are
accepted
blindly,
without
question
on
the
grounds
of
mere
assumption or dogma, need to be frankly recognized as such. Progress in human thought seems to
consist mainly in getting rid of such ideas.


beliefs
are
held
through
self- interest.
Modern
psychology
leaves
us
no
room
for
doubt on this point. We adopt and cling to some beliefs because
—
or partly because
—it “pays” us
to do so. But, as a rule, the person concerned is about the last person in the world to be able to
recognize this in himself. Indeed, he would probably be highly indignant if told of what anyone
familiar with modern psychology can recognize plainly. It would be quite wrong to attribute all
opinions
—
even
political
opinions
—
to
self- interest.
But
it
would
be
equally
wrong
to
deny
that
this is one potent factor.