On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
which we expect nothing but instruction ; and if we be not disappointed in this expectation , nor fi nd any material difficulty in comprehending the sense of the author , his aim \ s accom ^ plished , and we have reason to be satisfied .
Respecting the claims of this treatise to approbation , we shg . ll endeavour to enable our readers to judge for themselves , hy making as copious extracts as the plan of our Miscellany will permit . The first shall be from the preface , on the utility of attending to the nature of moral evidence .
* t He who has not attained the knowledge , and accustomed himself to the usjs of correct and iixed principles of decision on the weight of evidence for matters of fact , mast engage in the discussion of many important questions—such , for Instance , as the truth of Christianity ; - ^ ¦ with great disadvantage . Tfre pripcipjes op which he v / jJJ b # required
to decide , being neyv to him , will probably appear to have peen framed merely for th £ occasion , and will therefore be suspicious : but iad he pursued this study with due attention , these principles would "be £ have byeen" } fexniliar to him ; he would have been accustomed to apply them to various subjects , and to see that they lead to correct conclusions . To him , therefore , they would afford both a safe ancj
satisfactory ground of decision on the question prop&sefi . c This study will also be a naeafts qi preservation from many errors in the ordinary occurrences pf lifp . JRew practical questions call for pur decision , on which we are not previously interested on the one side ? or the other . The haying to search for our principles of judgment , ^ phile under the influence of interest , must be an inlet to delusion , in
addition to the danger of misapply Uig them . But if we have been acr cjastoEQeci to the use of certain fix ^ ed principles of evidence , th ^ y will naturally prespjit themselves to our minds , when occasion ^ for thelf applications arise ; nor shall we be able to decide incopsistei } f ] y witfy tdbem , without being conscious of doing wrong . It would therefore be useful to acquire £ knowledge of the principles of moral evidence , as well as those of demonstration : and perhaps to pursue the study of
these different kinds of evidence at the saipe tipie . < c The author ' s motive for pngagjng ia the discussion of this sufrr ject , was , his having observed persons of ability and education delude themselves as to the truth of facts , of importance to their moral conduct , by applying to them principles of reasoning unsuited to the nature of the case . With the principles of demonstrative reasoning , they were well acquainted ; but of those of moral evidence they had not a
sufficiently clear and settled knowledge , to put them f > n thpir guarcjl against the delusions of inclinations or interest in thenisejves , or the sophistry of others . Hence even their knowledge of morapty , and the general rectitude of their intentions , became of little avail to direct th ^ ir conduct : for an error in th £ fa £ t is as fatal to v jir tue , as an errojr
in the principles of morality . ' * The work is divided into five chapters , each of which is subdivided into a number of sections ; and a table of contents is prefixed , which states the particular subject of every section . The first chapter is ** On the nature of moral evidence ^ aad wherein it tU < flfer& from demonbtration / 9
Untitled Article
£ 98 Gambler ' s Moral Evidence .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1806, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1730/page/38/
-