THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 20

How can a three-pronged trident help us be more tolerant of views different from ours and help us be more intellectually humble?

Subject:  Epistemology - Mill’s Trident

Event:  Birthday of British philosopher John Stuart Mill, 1806

Perfect objectivity will always elude us, but we come much closer if we follow the empirical rule by checking our views against others’ different views, which of course is possible only where people disagree. -Jonathan Rauch

Today is the birthday of one of the most influential philosophers and writers of all time, John Stuart Mill.  Mill was born in London and was educated by his father at home.  Although he never attended a university, his writings were widely read and respected, especially his masterpiece, On Liberty (1859).

                                                        Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

The major theme of On Liberty is freedom of speech and how it must be allowed to withstand the “tyranny of the majority.”  To address the importance of freedom of speech, Mill presents a three-pronged trident that shows the possibilities of any argument:

-First, your argument might be entirely wrong.

-Second, your argument might be partially wrong.

-Third, your argument might be entirely correct.

In the first case, no matter how confident we feel about our own argument, we must realize that there is a possibility that we might be wrong; the only way to truly test this is to expose it to disconfirming challenges.  We know that the impulse towards confirmation bias (see THINKER’S ALMANAC - February 15 and October 4) blinds us to seeing the whole truth; we must, therefore, be open to and welcome any challenges, realizing that all claims are provisional and open to be disproven at any time.

In the second case, we may be close to truth; however, we must be open to forming a more complete and precise claim.  By being open to the ideas and perspectives of others, we can correct our imprecision and revise our claim to make it more complete and correct.

In the third case, even if we are completely correct, we won’t truly understand our claim unless we can defend it.  We need contrary viewpoints to test our understanding and strengthen our claim.  Furthermore, a truth that is not challenged is most likely to become “dead dogma, not living truth.”

In short, Mill’s trident encourages us to be intellectually humble, realizing that there is always the possibility of being wrong and that the only way to ensure we are getting closer to the truth is to expose our claims to contrary views.

Furthermore, as Jonathan Raunch explains in his book The Constitution of Knowledge (2021), knowledge is not something that we discover by ourselves; it is best done in groups of people with diverse opinions:  “It is a product of human interactions, not just individual reason.  It requires comparing viewpoints.  Wherever there is only one person or opinion, fact and faith become undistinguishable” (192).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What are the three prongs of Mill’s Trident?  How does each prong help us get closer to the truth? 

Challenge - Mill 101:  Read the following excerpt from Chapter 2 of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859).  After you have read the excerpt, summarize Mill’s key ideas as clearly and succinctly as you can in your own words:

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels most inclination. 

Sources:

1-Lukianoff, Gregg. “Mill’s (invincible) Trident: An argument every fan (or opponent) of free speech must know.” Thefire.org 16 Feb. 2021.

2-Rauch, Jonathan. The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2021: 192.