The collected papers of Wilfred Trotter, F. R. S.

  • Trotter, W. (Wilfred), 1872-1939.
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The collected papers of Wilfred Trotter, F. R. S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    194/212 (page 182)
    cannot but be struck by the remarkable prevalence of systems of doctrine, by their loudness, their confusion, and their deleterious effect on conduct. In all these systems the most indulgent examination will find little evidence of really enterprising thought, but it will find a great deal of reconditioned lumber, at its best of a low order of reality and now used to justify the lazier, the uglier, and the baser inclinations of the human spirit. At no time in the history of the intellect has the sanitary work of destructive criticism been more needful. Correction of Thought Although one might be reluctant to accept the ortho¬ dox view that destruction is justified only as a pre¬ liminary to rebuilding, we can all agree that the one is an excellent preparation for the other. If we have learnt to distrust the validity of the operations of the intellect, we at least have gained the advantage of looking at its proceedings with a new objectivity. If we have been expelled from our rationalistic paradise, at least the world is all before us where to choose. To throw the helve after the hatchet is proverbially the temptation to which disappointment exposes us. It is not surprising, therefore, that we are sometimes ad¬ vised, by what seems to be a growing body of opinion, actually to abandon the use of reason. This advice is, I suspect, more often founded on a dislike for the con¬ clusions of reason than on any radical doubt of their validity. We possess in reason an instrument that is powerful but admittedly very awkward to handle, and apt to pinch our fingers or jump back on our shins. It seems more sensible and less pusillanimous to learn how to use it rather than to throw it away. On attempts to make the intellect a practical and handy implement a truly