The Essence Of Belief Is The Establishment

Upon This First, And In One Sense This Sole, Rule Of Reason, That In Order To Learn You Must Desire To Learn, And In So Desiring Not Be Satisfied With What You Already Incline To Think, There Follows One Corollary Which Itself Deserves To Be Inscribed Upon Every Wall Of The City Of Philosophy: Do Not Block The Way Of Inquiry.

My Language Is The Sum Total Of Myself.

Doubt Is An Uneasy And Dissatisfied State From Which We Struggle To Free Ourselves And Pass Into The State Of Belief; While The Latter Is A Calm And Satisfactory State Which We Do Not Wish To Avoid, Or To Change To A Belief In Anything Else.

The Real, Then, Is That Which, Sooner Or Later, Information And Reasoning Would Finally Result In, And Which Is Therefore Independent Of The Vagaries Of Me And You. Thus, The Very Origin Of The Conception Of Reality Shows That This Conception Essentially Involves The Notion Of A Community, Without Definite Limits, And Capable Of A Definite Increase Of Knowledge.

Truth Is That Concordance Of An Abstract Statement With The Ideal Limit Towards Which Endless Investigation Would Tend To Bring Scientific Belief, Which Concordance The Abstract Statement May Possess By Virtue Of The Confession Of Its Inaccuracy And One-sidedness, And This Confession Is An Essential Ingredient Of Truth.