It seems not improbable that Mr. Mill may have had in mind something
like the foregoing considerations when he suggested that there is no
reason why one should not entertain the belief in a future life if the
belief be necessary to one's spiritual comfort. Perhaps no suggestion
in Mr. Mill's richly suggestive posthumous work has been more generally
condemned as unphilosophical, on the ground that in matters of belief we
must be guided, not by our likes and dislikes, but by the evidence
that is accessible. The objection is certainly a sound one so far as
it relates to scientific questions where evidence is accessible.
To hesitate to adopt a well-supported theory because of some vague
preference for a different view is in scientific matters the one
unpardonable sin,--a sin which has been only too often committed. Even
in matters which lie beyond the range of experience, where evidence
is inaccessible, desire is not to be regarded as by itself an adequate
basis for belief. But it seems to me that Mr. Mill showed a deeper
knowledge of the limitations of scientific method than his critics, when
he thus hinted at the possibility of entertaining a belief not amenable
to scientific tests. The hypothesis of a purely spiritual unseen
world, as above described, is entirely removed from the jurisdiction of
physical inquiry, and can only be judged on general considerations of
what has been called "moral probability"; and considerations of this
sort are likely, in the future as in the past, to possess different
values for different minds. He who, on such considerations, entertains
a belief in a future life may not demand that his sceptical neighbour
shall be convinced by the same considerations; but his neighbour is at
the same time estopped from stigmatizing his belief as unphilosophical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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