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«The human understanding, once it has adopted opinions, either because they were already accepted and believed, or because it likes them, draws everything else to support and agree with them. And though it may meet a greater number and weight of contrary instances, it will, with great and harmful prejudice, ignore or condemn or exclude them by introducing some distinction, in order that the authority of those earlier assumptions may remain intact and unharmed.»
–Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, 1620
Francis Bacon (from Novum Organum, 1620)
Source: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bacon/bacon.liber1.shtml
Translation by Google
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«PARTIS SECUNDAE
SUMMA,
DIGESTA
IN
APHORISMOS.
APHORISMI
DE INTERPRETATIONE
NATURAE
ET REGNO HOMINIS.
…
XLVI.
Intellectus humanus in iis quae semel placuerunt (aut quia recepta sunt et credita, aut quia delectant), alia etiam omnia trahit ad suffragationem et consensum cum illis: et licet major sit instantiarum vis et copia, quae occurrunt in contrarium; tamen eas aut non observat, aut contemnit, aut distinguendo summovet et rejicit, non sine magno et pernicioso praejudicio, quo prioribus illis syllepsibus authoritas maneat inviolata. Itaque recte respondit ille, qui, cum suspensa tabula in templo ei monstraretur eorum qui vota solverant, quod naufragii periculo elapsi sint, atque interrogando premeretur, anne tum quidem Deorum numen agnosceret, quaesivit denuo, At ubi sunt illi depicti qui post vota nuncupata perierint? Eadem ratio est fere omnis superstitionis, ut in astrologicis, in somniis, ominibus, nemesibus, et hujusmodi; in quibus homines delectati hujusmodi vanitatibus advertunt eventus, ubi emplentur; ast ubi fallunt, licet multo frequentius, tamen negligunt et praetereunt. At longe subtilius serpit hoc malum in philosophiis et scientiis; in quibus quod semel placuit, reliqua (licet multo firmiora et potiora) inficit, et in ordinem redigit. Quinetiam licet abfuerit ea, quam diximus, delectatio et vanitas, is tamen humano intellectui error est proprius et perpetuus, ut magis moveatur et excitetur affirmativis, quam negativis; cum rite et ordine aequum se utrique praebere debeat; quin contra, in omni axiomate vero constituendo, major est vis instantiae negativae.»
…
XLVI.
«The human intellect, in those things which have once pleased (either because they have been received and believed, or because they delight), also draws all other things to support and agree with them: and although the force and abundance of instances which occur to the contrary are greater; yet it either does not observe them, or despises them, or by distinguishing them it removes them and rejects them, not without great and pernicious prejudice, so that the authority of those former syllabuses may remain inviolate. Therefore he answered rightly who, when a tablet was shown to him in the temple of those who had fulfilled their vows, that they had escaped the danger of shipwreck, and was pressed by questioning whether he did not then indeed acknowledge the divinity of the Gods, asked again, But where are those depicted who perished after the vows were mentioned? The same reason is in almost all superstition, as in astrology, in dreams, omens, enemies, and the like; in which men, delighted in such vanities, observe events where they are fulfilled; but where they err, though much more frequently, they nevertheless neglect and pass over. But this evil spreads far more subtly in philosophies and sciences; in which what has once pleased, infects the rest (though much firmer and more powerful) and reduces them to order. Moreover, although that pleasure and vanity which we have mentioned were absent, yet this error is proper and perpetual to the human intellect, that it is moved and excited more by affirmatives than by negatives; since it ought to give itself equal weight to both in due and order; but on the contrary, in establishing every true axiom, the force of the negative instance is greater.»
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