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KEEPING ERRORS AT BAY

Bertrand Russell, England (1872-1970)

In the essay "Keeping Errors at Bay", Russell talks about how to avoid errors and provides some techniques for that. According to him, we can be free from most errors and blind beliefs through experiments using common and creative sense. The essay provides us about what are the things for making errors and how can we avoid them or what are the basic approaches for removing our foolish ideas, fear and feeling of superiority, selfishness and bais.

According to Russell fear is the most common source of error. It may operate directly or indirectly and has many forms, for example, fear of death, fear of the dark, and fear of the unknown. In fact, fear is the source of evil. If we use scientific knowledge and methods, we can avoid such errors. 

The writer provides multiple examples of mistakes that generally people commit in their day-to-day life. His main idea is to provide suggestions to avoid mistakes. We need a careful, serious, critical and analytical mind to get rid of these errors. People generally believe whatever others say and that may be one of their mistakes to be wrong. At the same time, we keep errors at bay because we do not like to listen to other people’s different opinions and think that ours is the most beautiful idea. Following are some of the reasons why we become a victim of errors:

  • self-esteem
  • fate and death
  • superstitions, social dogmas, traditions
  • conservation
  • ignorance
  • fear
  • lack of critical, analytical mind
  • self-centred, unfair judgment
  • overconfidence

How can we get rid of these?

  • Observe ourselves, things, matters etc.
  • Confront other people's logic with reason
  • Know other's psychology
  • Avoid self-esteem, superstition, ego-centrism
  • Be a sceptic on unproven ideas
  • Have a deep understanding of the things, matters etc
  • Develop comparative ideas, a critical mind
  • Have tolerance for other's ideas

Russell says that people who believe in superstitions, conservative ideas, prejudices, and injustice, make many silly errors. Most modern human beings are guided by bias, selfishness and discrimination and are proud of their race, nationality, gender, power and knowledge; they might create a number of errors. To support his arguments, he brings the views of Aristotle. Aristotle claimed that women have fewer teeth than men. It seems that his view is gender biased.  Many ancient and medieval authors knew all about unicorns (imaginary beings) and salamanders (mythical creatures) but none of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them.

According to Bertrand Russell, to avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep us, if not from all errors, but from silly errors. Decisions should be made on knowledge, not on opinion. To avoid the errors he suggests to:

Make careful Observations:

If the matter is one that can be settled by observations, one shouldn't hesitate to make observations himself. In this case, one shouldn't think that he/she doesn't need that observation because s/he thinks s/he has known it beforehand when s/he actually is not. Thinking that we know when in fact we don’t is a fatal mistake, to which we are all used to.

Ride away from dogmatism (The intolerance and prejudice of a bigot):

How to ride away from dogmatism?

  • A good way of ridding ourselves of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from our own. To do this one can live outside his/her country for a few years. One can go for travel time and again. If one cannot travel or seek out people with whom s/he disagrees, s/he can read for e.g. a newspaper belonging to a party that’s not his/her. These steps are very profitable in diminishing the intensity of insular prejudice. However, becoming aware of foreign customs doesn't always have a beneficial effect.
  • Those who have enough psychological imagination can imagine an argument with a person having a different bias to overcome their own prejudice.
  • Be cautious of opinions that flatter our self-esteem.
  • Admit our own fears to ourselves, and guard ourselves by a difficult effort of will against their myth.

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