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2006 : WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA? [1]

In the News [ 26 ] [2]
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Contributors [ 119 ] [3]   |   View All Responses [ 119 ] [4]
[5]
Nicholas Humphrey [5]
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, London School of Economics; Visiting Professor of Philosophy, New College of the Humanities; Senior Member, Darwin College, Cambridge; Author, Soul Dust
It is undesirable to believe in a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true

Bertrand Russell's idea, put forward 80 years ago, is about as dangerous as they come. I don't think I can better it: "I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe in a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true." (The opening lines of his Sceptical essays).

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[1] https://www.edge.org/annual-question/what-is-your-dangerous-idea
[2] https://www.edge.org/inthenews/what-is-your-dangerous-idea
[3] https://www.edge.org/contributors/what-is-your-dangerous-idea
[4] https://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-your-dangerous-idea
[5] https://www.edge.org/memberbio/nicholas_humphrey