If You Know That Things

Understanding A Theory Has, Indeed, Much In Common With Understanding A Human Personality. We May Know Or Understand A Man's System Of Dispositions Pretty Well; That Is To Say, We May Be Able To Predict How He Would Act In A Number Of Different Situations. But Since There Are Infinitely Many Possible Situations, Of Infinite Variety, A Full Understanding Of A Man's Dispositions Does Not Seem To Be Possible.

Nature Consists Of Facts And Of Regularities, And Is In Itself Neither Moral Nor Immoral. It Is We Who Impose Our Standards Upon Nature, And Who In This Way Introduce Morals Into The Natural World, In Spite The Fact That We Are Part Of This World. We Are Products Of Nature, But Nature Has Made Us Together With Our Power Of Altering The World, Of Foreseeing And Of Planning For The Future, And Of Making Far-reaching Decisions For Which We Are Morally Responsible. Yet, Responsibility, Decisions, Enter The World Of Nature Only With Us

Aestheticism And Radicalism Must Lead Us To Jettison Reason, And To Replace It By A Desperate Hope For Political Miracles. This Irrational Attitude Which Springs From Intoxication With Dreams Of A Beautiful World Is What I Call Romanticism. It May Seek Its Heavenly City In The Past Or In The Future; It May Preach 'back To Nature' Or 'forward To A World Of Love And Beauty'; But Its Appeal Is Always To Our Emotions Rather Than To Reason. Even With The Best Intentions Of Making Heaven On Earth It Only Succeeds In Making It A Hell - That Hell Which Man Alone Prepares For His Fellow-men.

A Rationalist, As I Use The Word, Is A Man Who Attempts To Reach Decisions By Argument And Perhaps, In Certain Cases, By Compromise, Rather Than By Violence. He Is A Man Who Would Rather Be Unsuccessful In Convincing Another Man By Argument Than Successful In Crushing Him By Force, By Intimidation And Threats, Or Even By Persuasive Propaganda.

All Things Living Are In Search Of A Better World .