JB/015/319/001

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Vol. III p.5
168

There is however something at the bottom of all this anxiety. What
men want to know is What degree of assurance they may prudently are warranted to
indulge? What evidence is there that this morality is the
true morality?

Call the sort of proof men have of a proposition, demonstration, they
may be positive without being to be accused either by exposed to accusations of rashness either from themselves or
any one else of rashness.

No one can have present to his mind the proof of every proposition
how true soever which he believes. It is for want of the thing that
men are so anxious about the word.

No man how philosophical, how scrupulous soever but what
believes infinitely more propositions upon trust than upon perception
the only difference in this belief particular between the philosopher and the
no-philosopher, or in short between the wise man and the weak
is that the latter rests upon authority absolutely conclusively in the last as
well as in the first instance – the former always keeps open the
appeal to reason, that is to his own perceptions. The judgments
of the 1st first upon hearing the report of authority are provisional:
the judgments of the latter are definitive. Vol III. 26-7.

But of demonstration certain propositions are not susceptible.
The proposition that happiness is better than unhappiness cannot be subjected to
mathematical proof. But let him who impugns the doctrine
impugn our reasonings. It is, the only axiom we desire to have
taken for granted – & this is to make a very small demand
upon confidence or upon credulity.

Identifier: | JB/015/319/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	319	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles	vol. iii p. 5
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f168
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[prince of wales feathers] i&m 1818]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	arthur wellesley, duke of wellington
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1818
Notes public		ID Number	5535
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