The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-06-16
Skeptical Thinking.

Skeptical Thinking.
A summary of Mr.. Gregory Dexter,
| Wolcott's oratIon is: The charge is often
! advanced at the present day that oGr col
| lege aud other Institutions Of higher learn q.
/ ing are turning out men in whom skeptical
thinking largely predominateS While in a
measure this Is true, it is not very surpris-
Ing nor wholly To be regretted.
Intense intellectual activity is apparent
In every department of knowledge today.
Concident with each activity history
shows that there has always boen n ten.
dencv toward skeptical thinking; there
fore, we cannot be surprised when we find
men In college where the intellectual fer
ment Is the greatest imbued quite largely
with skeptical thought.
While, however, many people recognize
the naturalness of such thought in view of
the critical spirit in college, they regret
IT. and wish that the intellectual develop.
ment might be gained without the accom-
pauying skepticism. But those very con-
dtions are best calculated To produce
larger and fuller appreciation of truth In
all its purity and beauty.
From the midst OF the sophists of
Greece, who were essentially skeptical
came Socrates, the almost Givine teacher
followed closely by Plato and Aristotle
all of whom have been prominent factors
in enlarging the worlds apprehension of
such skeptical conditions while the great
triumph Of the spirit over great evils since
the moment of the French Revolution un-
Til now, II, according to Prot. Royce, the
result of the eighteenth century
skepticism. Skeptical. thinking is stage
in intellectual development and more fire.
queDtly than not the precursion of
larger fuller apprehension of truth and
of blessing to mankind
What Is true of the race is true also Of
the Individual. The skeptical thoughts of
college students to-day mark n stage in
their development. Iney show that these
men have become thinkers; the very thing
they were sent 20 college for. college
course does not mean that a man shall
store his head with facts to rattle around
after graduation and make him famous
by their sound, but that he shall be- trained
Ia think Skeptical thoughts indicate that
this thinking has begun.
such thoughts also usually lead to In
vestigatior. and so To the elimination, lit
tie by little, OF error more or less serious,
which is almost linked with truth when
10 first makes its way into mems minds
That stage. then, in the intellectual devel-
opmont of uden's today, is valuable
Cnc even though there are dangers con-
nected with it. The dangers are first
that the men will not become skeptloal
enough. They may cease 10 think alto-
eether when the full consciousness OF
their skeptical thoughts bursts upon
them ana so become agnostics or con
firmed skeptics. Like timid skaters on
thin ice, they stop and sink; bold skaters
strike out and are safe. There Is larger
fuller, more satisfying vision of the truth
farther on, II the thinkers will but fight
their way thither. Like TenlcldrocRel in
"Sartor Resartus. they may have TO go
through the painful pergatory Of unbelief
they may have TO press. tho everlasting
n ia - a
will surely hear tie everlasting yea
break with sweetest music upon their
ears intellectual laziness alone will pre
vent their renching the goal
A second danger lies in the fact that
the friends of the students may tr'at
them unkin ly because of their skeptioal
thoughts, and SO drive them Co a position
the falsity of which they quickly perceive,
but from which they are too proud 10 re-
treat. This they may do even though
they themselves have it may be, passed
through the samo stage, but since they
think they are fighting mere shadows
then they arc apt to have little patience
with tho man now struggling. They
should rather throw him line in the
shape OF n helpful thought or direct him
to what might assist him 20 firm ground.
In that case the skeptical thinking of tho
men would mark merely n stage In their
intellectual development and result in u
largcr, fuller apprehension of the truth.
Skeptical thinking tbeD, today, among
college students IL very natural, aud not
wholly to be regretted SINCE IL Is but
stage In their development and the at
tendant danger can Do met and overcome.
n thv men themselves will do pcnitont
thinking aud their friends maintain
toward them helpful, encouraging atti-
tudo.
Scientific Dogmatism.
The third orator OF tho day was MIR James