Precis

2 Pages 471 Words

Precis #3


The utterance of untruth is not justified through suppression of doubts on the subject or ignorance of the truth. Taking a statement for what it’s worth, without any further inquiry, is not only doing one’s self harm but also doing harm to anyone who one retells that statement and to society as a whole. In the case of the ship owner, burying his uncertainties about the integrity of his vessel, regardless of its journey’s success, was a wrong. It is also faulty to believe on insufficient evidence or by purposely avoiding investigation.
It is asserted that humankind believes blindly because it is afraid of doubt and unmotivated to investigate. One’s beliefs make one strong if one has strong convictions. If these convictions are untrue, however, that strength is stolen and unreal. By this process, it is possible that society could become totally complacent, accepting everything that it is told by whom ever tells it.
The process starts at childhood; a mother telling her child what she knows of the world with the child believing everything on the basis of authority. The child has no reason to ask questions of what it is told because it has no reason to first question the validity of its parents. It also has no knowledge of the rules of authority. Some things may be discounted because they cannot be known by a human or by a human of the nature to which one is speaking. If a mother tells her child that its dead dog didn’t feel a thing when it died and that it went up to puppy heaven to be with all its doggie friends, there is immediate cause for the child to discount its mothers story. Children cannot understand this however. As the child grows it becomes aware that it should begin to question things which it has held to be true. It is easier to be skeptical of things one is learning than things one ahs held true for a lifetime. People believe falsehoods from their youth to keep peac!
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