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Monday, May 10, 2010

Monday's Mason

Vol. 4, Chapter VI:  My Lord Chief Attorney-General, Reason
Good and Sensible Persons come to Opposite Conclusions:  "On questions of war and peace and politics, of religion, of education, of public works, of clothing, of food, in fact, upon any and every point, you will find it possible that the Reason of equally good and equally intelligent people will bring them to quite opposite conclusions.  That is the cause of all the controversy in the world.  People think that they can convince each other by the arguments which their own Reason has accepted.  So they could, if the other side were not already convinced by arguments exactly opposite; and upon which side a man is convinced, usually depends upon his will: - 'Convince a man against his will, He's of the same opinion still';  because we must remember that Reason is each man's own particular servant, and plays on his side, as it were, and convinces him of that which he is inclined to believe." 
"Therefore, seeing that all men, who are not idiots or insane, are endowed with this same power of reasoning, we may conclude that Reason is not infallible, and that certain and fixed conclusions need not be right conclusions, but that all depends upong the notion from which reasoning begins."

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