120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 63

Chapter 4 Section 3 False Wisdom

[UK] Russell
In America, I have been solemnly assured that the unlucky are mostly born in March, and those prone to corns are mostly born in May.I don't know the historical origin of these superstitions, they may come from Babylonian or Egyptian religious legends.Faith began in high society, and after about three to four thousand years, it gradually invaded the educated crowd.

In America, you'll find your colored slave girls quoting Plato's nonsense, not the ones quoted by scholars, like whoever doesn't seek wisdom in life will be a woman in the next life.And the interpreters of the great philosophers always ignore their follies, and are not at all rude, but polite.

Aristotle was an absurd man, despite his reputation.He said a woman should conceive in winter, when the wind is in the north; he said that those who marry too early only bear girls; ; said that an elephant suffering from insomnia should be rubbed with salt, olive oil, and warm water on its shoulders; that women have fewer teeth than men.For all his gibberish, most philosophers see him as a model of wisdom.

A more common superstition concerns the prediction of good and bad days.In ancient times, they controlled the actions of generals.We ourselves still have a strong bias against Friday and No. 13.Sailors don't like sailing on Fridays, and many hotels don't have a thirteenth floor.The superstitions about Friday and No. 13 that many smart people once believed in are considered harmless madness by smart people today.But maybe 2000 years from now, the beliefs of today's smart people will look just as stupid.Man is a credulous animal, he has to believe something.If faith has no good grounds, bad ones will satisfy him.

Many mistakes are made by believing in "natural" or "natural".This belief once played a big part in medicine, and still does.The human body, if we let it go, has the power to heal itself.Small wounds usually heal on their own, colds will pass, and even serious illnesses sometimes heal without treatment.But despite this, it is still necessary for us to do the necessary help to nature.A wound festers if left unsterilized; a cold, if not treated promptly, gives a man pneumonia; and only a distant traveler or explorer ignores serious illness when he has no other choice.

Many things that appear natural are unnatural, like dressing and bathing.Before man invented clothes, they must have discovered that the frigid regions were uninhabitable.In unclean places, people will suffer from various diseases, such as typhus and typhoid fever. Westerners no longer suffer from such diseases.Vaccinations were once viewed as unnatural, but this objection is ambivalent, since no one can assume that a broken bone will heal naturally.There are many other things that are considered unnatural, such as eating cooked food and lighting a fire to keep warm.

【Together with you】

Plato said: "I love my teacher, and I love the truth more." Blindly following the wisdom of predecessors is a kind of frivolous superstition, without discerning judgment, and lacking rational dimension and tenacity.True wisdom can withstand any severe test, and never attaches to a certain person's reputation and prestige.In the process of growing up, teenagers should absorb the excellent civilization and ideas of human beings, but they should also carefully discern the impurities or false elements hidden under the aura of wisdom.He wanted to get up several times, and wanted to throw away those eye-catching things immediately, but he seemed to be paralyzed on the sofa, and he shouted in his heart: "Right away, right away..."

(End of this chapter)