Abstract
THE thesis defended in this, the latest, volume of Prof. Mairhead's ethical library is that doubt is no mere negative of belief, but a positive element absolutely necessary to real life. It is true that the common-sense view of the world is full of contradictions that furnish abundant food for doubt, and that no less must be said of the more special and abstract views which constitute the sciences. But though Prof. Lloyd thus agrees with Mr. F. H. Bradley in holding that our experience at all its levels is “riddled with contradictions,” he does not follow the Oxford philosopher to his famous conclusion that all experience is therefore only of “appearance” and not of “reality.” In his view, on the contrary, contradiction actually serves experience by holding it down to the real world which it would otherwise miss. It follows that the “doubter's world” must always present certain positive features which will accord with the principles of Descartes, the typical modern doubter. Among these will be found psychophysical parallelism and “the immortality of whatever is indeed real.”
The Will to Doubt: an Essay in Philosophy for the General Thinker.
By Alfred H. Lloyd. Pp. xi + 285. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 4s 6d.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Will to Doubt: an Essay in Philosophy for the General Thinker . Nature 77, 534 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/077534c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077534c0