It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before. Some day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understanding of the evolution of the aesthetic faculty; but all the understanding in the world will neither increase nor diminish the force of the intuition that this is beautiful and that is ugly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the limits of scientific understanding in defining moral and aesthetic values.
In this quote, Thomas Huxley discusses the idea that while cosmic evolution may shed light on the origins of human tendencies toward good and evil, it does not provide a more profound justification for why society values good over evil. He emphasizes that no amount of intellectual understanding can change the innate human intuition of beauty and ugliness, suggesting that these values may reside outside the realm of empirical science and are instead deeply ingrained in human experience.
Themes
EvolutionGoodEvilAestheticsIntuition
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of morality and ethics.
More from Thomas Huxley
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Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains within.
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The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.
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It is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible.
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Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
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