If that statement could be proved to be a logical consequence from the
facts of science, then it would indeed be proved that one article in the
common creed of mankind was inconsistent with the rest. But, as we have
argued already, it is not implied either in the admitted uniformity of
Nature or in any of the facts deducible from it. To revert to the simile
of the chess-board, it is as though one should say that because Black
could not have moved his knight unless White had moved his pawn,
therefore White was bound to move the pawn.
We cannot, therefore, consider that the pessimist has succeeded in
showing that the articles of the common faith which he accepts require
in their logical consequences the rejection of the rest. In saying that
man ought to choose the right, but has no choice between right and
wrong, he is not formulating a consequence of the facts of science, he
is simply assuming without evidence the existence of a universal
necessity of which the changes in Nature and the actions of man are but
the varying though inevitable expression--an assumption which
invalidates morality without adding to the truth of science.
There are those whose belief in demonology furnishes them with a reason
and an excuse for the misdeeds of man. The belief in necessity exhibits
demonology as a doctrine of science: man would fain do right, but the
uniformity, which is the necessity, of Nature allows him no choice. It
is Nature, the environment, which is the abode and headquarters of
necessity, the enemy of the ethical process, the arch-demon of
scientific demonology. And the proof that he exists is that he must.
What must be, must be, because it must.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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