"It is sometimes said that we live in an age that rejects authority. The statement, thus qualified, seems misleading; probably there never was a time when the number of beliefs held by each individual, undemonstrated and unverified by himself, was greater. But it is true that we only accept authority of a peculiar sort; the authority, namely, that is formed and maintained by the unconstrained agreement of individual thinkers, each of whom we believe to be seeking truth with single-mindedness and sincerity, and declaring what he has found with scrupulous veracity, and the greatest attainable exactness and precision."
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Philosophers from EnglandEconomists from EnglandFeminists from EnglandAuthors from EnglandUtilitarians
Original Language: English
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Henry Sidgwick, The Ethics of Religious Conformity, International Journal of Ethics, vol. 6, no. 3 (April, 1896), p. 280
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Sidgwick
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Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick (31 May 1838 – 28 August 1900) was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist.
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