"Agnosticism is not properly described as a "negative" creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that 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. This is what agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to agnosticism. That which agnostics deny and repudiate as immoral is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe, without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions. The justification of the agnostic principle lies in the success which follows upon its application, whether in the field of natural or in that of civil history; and in the fact that, so far as these topics are concerned, no sane man thinks of denying its validity."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from EnglandTranslators from EnglandAgnosticsZoologists from EnglandAnthropologists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Huxley
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Thomas Henry Huxley
1825 – 1895
englischer Biologe
148 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Thomas Henry Huxley →
Related Quotes
"From the point of view of the moralist the animal world is on about the same level as a gladiator's show. The creatur…"
"The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind."
"Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once."
"To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with w…"
"It is true that if philosophers have suffered their cause has been amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about …"
"A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel s…"
"I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and evil inseparably woven up in the life of the ve…"
"The fact is he made a prodigious blunder in commencing the attack, and now his only chance is to be silent and let pe…"
"I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition…"
"I do not mean to suggest that scientific differences should be settled by universal suffrage, but I do conceive that …"