Better to Believe and Be Wrong Than Not Believe Anything
He who says “Better to go without belief forever than believe a lie!” merely shows his own preponderant private horror of becoming a dupe. . . . It is like a general informing his soldiers that it is better to keep out of battle forever than to risk a single wound. Not so are victories either over enemies or over nature gained. Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.
Notes:
If you believe a thing and are wrong, you can improve your beliefs in light of new evidence.
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Concepts:
2008 singles (0.924066): dbpedia
Core issues in ethics (0.825895): dbpedia
Epistemology (0.742653): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Thing (0.613836): dbpedia
Belief (0.613245): dbpedia | freebase
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality