To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.
If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake? of thinking that woman have fewer teeth than man, by the sumple device of asking Mrs.Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted.He did not do so because he thought he knew. Thinking tht you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone.
Many matters, however are less easily brought to the test of experiebce. If, like most of mankind , you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do . If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there 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.
So whenver you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find , on examination, that you belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.
From How to Avoide Foolish Opinions by Bertrand Russell
持有各種各樣愚蠢的見(jiàn)識(shí)乃人類的通病。要想避免這種通病，并不需要過(guò)人的天賦。下面有幾項(xiàng)簡(jiǎn)單原則，雖然不能保證你不犯任何錯(cuò)誤，卻可以保證你避免一些可笑的錯(cuò)誤。
如果一個(gè)問(wèn)題單憑觀察就可以解決的話，就請(qǐng)您親自觀察一番。亞里士多德誤以為婦女牙齒的數(shù)量比男人少。這種錯(cuò)誤，他本來(lái)是可以避免的，而且辦法很簡(jiǎn)單。他只需要請(qǐng)他的夫人把嘴張開(kāi)親自數(shù)一數(shù)就行了。但他卻沒(méi)有這樣做，原因是他自以為是。自以為知道而實(shí)際上并不知道，這是我們?nèi)巳硕既菀追傅囊环N致命錯(cuò)誤。
不過(guò)，也存在許多事情不那么容易用經(jīng)驗(yàn)加以檢驗(yàn)。如果你像大多數(shù)人一樣在這類事情上頗為激烈的主張，就有一些辦法可以讓你意識(shí)到自己的想法是有偏頗的。如果你一聽(tīng)到一種與你相左的意見(jiàn)就發(fā)怒，就表明，你已經(jīng)下意識(shí)地明白自己堅(jiān)持的那種看法并沒(méi)有充足的理由。如果某個(gè)人硬要說(shuō)2加2等于5，或者說(shuō)冰島位于赤道，那么你會(huì)感到憐憫而不是憤怒，除非你自己對(duì)數(shù)學(xué)和地理也是知之甚少，因而他的看法竟然動(dòng)搖了你的立場(chǎng)。最野蠻的爭(zhēng)議是關(guān)于那些不能證實(shí)或者證偽的事件。迫害事件僅僅發(fā)生在神學(xué)領(lǐng)域而不見(jiàn)于數(shù)學(xué)領(lǐng)域，因?yàn)閿?shù)學(xué)問(wèn)題是知識(shí)問(wèn)題，而神學(xué)問(wèn)題則是見(jiàn)解問(wèn)題。
所以，無(wú)論什么時(shí)候，只要發(fā)現(xiàn)自己對(duì)不同的意見(jiàn)發(fā)起火來(lái)，你就要當(dāng)心了，因?yàn)橐唤?jīng)經(jīng)驗(yàn)，你的信念并沒(méi)有足夠的依據(jù)。
節(jié)選自羅素的《如何避免愚蠢的見(jiàn)識(shí)》
