Source: The best answer to fanaticism: Liberalism (Originally appeared in the December 16, 1951, issue of The New York Times Magazine, at the end of the article.)Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it.
The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Credit: Bertrand Russell
Posts: Bertrand Russell
Quotations: Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Critical Thinking Bertrand Russell
- Fools’ Certainty Bertrand Russell
- I Do Not Pretend to Start with Precise Questions Bertrand Russell
- If Everything Must Have a Cause, Then God Must Have a Cause Bertrand Russell (1927)
- It Has Been Said That Man Is a Rational Animal Bertrand Russell
- Passionate Opinions Bertrand Russell
- The Fundamental Cause of Trouble in the World Bertrand Russell
- What Men Really Want Is Not Knowledge but Certainty Bertrand Russell
Tags: argument (35) | authority (7) | beliefs (67) | Bertrand Russell (9) | critical thinking (43) | dissent (6) | opinoin (1) | respect (24) | thinking (34) | truth (26)
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