At the present time we have come to take a calm view of the question so
much debated seven years ago as to the legitimacy of logical arguments
in political discussions. No longer, fortunately, can that intense
feeling be roused which then found expression in the famous cry,
"Justice--right or wrong," and which played such a large part in the
politics of that time. Thus it will not be out of place in this
unimpassioned record of some of the truths and errors in the world to
refer briefly to Mr. R*ss*ll's short and stormy career. Before he was
torn to pieces, he had been forbidden to lecture on philosophy or
mathematics by some well-intentioned advocates of freedom in speech who
thought that the cause of freedom might be endangered by allowing Mr.
R*ss*ll to speak freely on points of logic, on the grounds, apparently,
that logic is both harmful and unnecessary and might be applied to
politics unless strong measures were taken for its suppression. On much
the same grounds, his liberty was taken from him by those who remarked
that, if necessary, they would die in defence of the sacred principle of
liberty; and it was in prison that the greater part of the present work
was written. Shortly after his liberation, which, like all actions of
public bodies, was brought about by the combined honour and interests of
those in authority, occurred his lamentable death to which we have
referred above.
Mr. R*ss*ll maintained that the chief use of "implication" in politics
is to draw conclusions, which are thought to be true, and which are
consequently false, from identical propositions, and we can see these
views expressed in Chapters III and XIX of the present work. These
chapters were apparently written before the Government, in the spring
of 1910, arrived at the famous secret decision that only "certain
implications" are permitted in discussion. Naturally the secret decision
gave rise to much speculation among logicians as to which kinds of
implication were barred, and Mr. R*ss*ll and Mr. Bertrand Russell had
many arguments on the subject, which naturally could not be published at
the time. However, after Mr. R*ss*ll's death, successive prosecutions
which were made by the Government at last made it quite clear that the
opinion held by Mr. R*ss*ll was the correct one. There had been numerous
prosecutions of people who, from true but not identical premisses, had
deduced true conclusions, so that the possible legitimate forms of
"implication" were reduced. Further, the other doubtful cases were
cleared up in course of time by the prosecution of (1) members of the
Aristotelian Society for deducing true conclusions from false premisses;
(2) members of the _Mind_ Association for deducing false conclusions
from false premisses; and also by the attempted prosecution of an
eminent lady for deducing true conclusions from identities. Fortunately
this lady was able to defend herself successfully by pleading that one
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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