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Nothing matters but evidence.
May. 31st, 2015 09:55 pmI've been reading The Age of Longing (http://come-to-think.livejournal.com/12193.html; http://come-to-think.dreamwidth.org./12180.html) once again. Of course, being by Koestler, it is full of arguments. In one of them, in Paris, a defected Russian has told his French friend that he is about to redefect to the Communist Party & return to the USSR, having been wooed by the Party after the death of Stalin. His friend is appalled:
"You have written three books to prove that the future is not theirs[...]."
"I have also given dozens of lectures on the subject. Self-deception is a powerful motor.[...] But once the motor stops, it is dead."
Julien gave no answer. Vardi continued:
"You may of course ask how I know that I am not the victim of a new self-deception of the opposite kind. But I have gone into that carefully. Self-deception is always accompanied by wishful thinking. Wishful thinking means hope. Since I have stopped fooling myself, my mood is not one of hope but of resignation. Hence it cannot be based on self-deception."
I bought my present copy in 1965. (It has just begun to fall apart.) At some time between then and now, I wrote in the margin:
*A common mistake. Resignation is a comfort, & as such can be as tempting, & as illicitly so, as hope. There is no feeling or motive accompanying a belief that can guarantee its truth. (No, M. Descartes, not even the feeling of clearly & distinctly perceiving a thing.) Nothing matters but evidence.
I have not changed my mind about that.
"You have written three books to prove that the future is not theirs[...]."
"I have also given dozens of lectures on the subject. Self-deception is a powerful motor.[...] But once the motor stops, it is dead."
Julien gave no answer. Vardi continued:
"You may of course ask how I know that I am not the victim of a new self-deception of the opposite kind. But I have gone into that carefully. Self-deception is always accompanied by wishful thinking. Wishful thinking means hope. Since I have stopped fooling myself, my mood is not one of hope but of resignation. Hence it cannot be based on self-deception."
I bought my present copy in 1965. (It has just begun to fall apart.) At some time between then and now, I wrote in the margin:
*A common mistake. Resignation is a comfort, & as such can be as tempting, & as illicitly so, as hope. There is no feeling or motive accompanying a belief that can guarantee its truth. (No, M. Descartes, not even the feeling of clearly & distinctly perceiving a thing.) Nothing matters but evidence.
I have not changed my mind about that.
