252 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC 



has been the uniform teaching of Scholastic philosophers at all 

 times. 1 They have taught that human authority in matters of 

 science is only a &quot; confirming criterion &quot; of truth and certitude. 

 And it is a commonplace truth of experience that when an 

 individual investigator brings to light some new conclusion by 

 a long line of laborious and sustained reasoning, the fact that 

 other investigators have reached the same conclusion, and assent 

 to it as true, corroborates his own findings and strengthens his 

 belief that his reasoning has been sound and logical. 



But because Scholastic philosophers, being for the most part Catholics, 

 have always taught that God has revealed to man truths of supreme import 

 ance, and has established on earth an institution endowed with infallible au 

 thority to teach those truths ; and because, too, they have rightly insisted on 

 the undeniable fact that men can and do reasonably hold, with a certitude that 

 is based not upon intrinsic evidence ; but on the authority of their fellow -men, 

 the vastly preponderating bulk of their certain knowledge : Scholastic philo 

 sophy has been wrongly and unjustifiably accused of opposing the progress of 

 science by setting up human authority in the place of man s natural reason 2 

 (201). It is only ignorance of the real teachings both of Scholastic philosophy 

 and of Catholic theology that could have originated and perpetuated such 

 charges. Even the uneducated Catholic knows that faith in revealed truth 

 or, indeed, in any truth that is believed on authority ought to be reasonable, 

 that blind faith is unnatural to a reasoning being and derogatory to the dignity 

 of his nature, that his faith would be irrational were he not convinced with 

 certitude that the channel, through which he has received what he believes, 

 is a reliable one. 



Scientific certitude is, of course, desirable, about matters which can be 

 known scientifically. But even about these how infinitesimally few there are, 

 comparatively speaking, who are in possession of really scientific certitude ! 

 It is not scientifically certain assents, but beliefs based on authority, that shape 

 the conduct of men s lives. The multitudes of mankind are influenced and 

 led by the authority of the few ; and no less in the twentieth than in the 

 fifteenth, or tenth, or fifth, centuries. The masses may transfer their allegiance 

 from leader to leader, but they will ever be led by some authority or other 

 as those are, nowadays, who proclaim in the name of modern science that 

 reason is at last emancipated from the shackles of authority and will henceforth 

 bow in reverence to science alone ! s 



1 &quot; Locus ab auctoritate quae fundatur super ratione humana est infirmissi- 

 mus.&quot; ST. THOMAS, Summa Theologica, I., Q. I., art. viii., ad 2. 



2 For an account of a recent attempt to revive those calumnies, cf. art. &quot; Philo 

 sophy and Sectarianism in Belfast University &quot; in the Irish Theological Quarterly, 

 October 1910 (reprinted, Dublin 1910) ; The Value of Scholastic Philosophy (Report 

 of Privy Council Investigation. Dublin : Catholic Truth Society, 1910) ; O KEEFFE, 

 art. Scholastic Philosophy, in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, April, 1911. For a 

 fuller treatment of the real attitude of Scholastic philosophy towards authority at 

 all times, we may refer the reader to De Wulf, Scholasticism Old and New (2nd 

 edit. 1910), pp. 53-75, 190-200: History of Medieval Philosophy, pp. 109-113, 173- 

 177, 206-212, 348-358, 403-406, 501-505. 



3 Mr. Balfour shows very clearly, in his Foundations of Belief (P. III., ch. 11.) 



