SECTION 23. GENERALISATION. 357 



oil, from the experience that the former, being less expensive, 

 are yet neglected in favour of the latter; typically forced 

 movements in animals are not necessarily accompanied by pain 

 or pleasure, for typically forced movements in human beings 

 are not always accompanied by pleasure or pain ; when animals 

 move from the shade to the light, it is not because they "prefer" 

 the latter, for they will do the reverse, if they can thus remain 

 oriented with their heads towards the source of light (Loeb); 

 if certain fish tend to swim against the current, this is not due 

 to the friction of the water, for if the fish be placed inside a 

 bottle and the bottle be dragged through the water, there will 

 be an identical reaction, and the same is proved by either 

 darkness or blindness supervening, for then the fish becomes 

 indifferent to the current. If we hear the Western peoples 

 confidently spoken of as of Aryan, Caucasian, or European 

 descent, we provisionally call into question the correctness of 

 the popular doctrine, and we proceed similarly when we hear 

 it affirmed that the Caucasian race is a separate race, that it 

 is wholly or relatively free from racial admixture, or that it 

 stands inherently higher than other races. Prejudice being an 

 active force in weaving and controlling theories, it is specially 

 important to challenge, and subsequently to scrutinise, the 

 soundness of any statement where sex, race, nationality, class, 

 religion, custom, economic considerations, and political party 

 are in dispute. 



181. (b) CONTRARY. Similarly with the term Contrary, 

 which we also employ in its ordinary logical acceptation. Here 

 we seek to cancel a statement by placing, if possible, a "no" 

 before the subject, as "All men are born depraved", "No man 

 is born depraved". Interest in evolving such negations should 

 be habitual, if only to prove an assertion unassailable, although 

 it will be found surprisingly often that either the contradictory 

 or the contrary of a proposition can be substantiated. The 

 double interest in affirmation and negation will also prevent 

 psychical prejudice from developing. The contradictory entails 

 a qualified denial ; the contrary a flat denial. Naturally, whilst 

 demonstrating that the contrary has sometimes far-reaching 

 and startling consequences, it is not probable that we can main- 

 tain it as frequently as the contradictory. When, however, 

 two nations, for instance, are at war, it is well to assume, until 

 adequate proof is forthcoming, that all grave accusations by 

 one side or the other, are presumably altogether baseless. 1 

 (See Conclusion 19/72.) So, too, the facts of primitive magic and 

 medicine are most profitably investigated by supposing the 



1 This passage was written prior to the World War. In this war, for ex- 

 ample, the communiques of each of the opposing Combatants referred almost 

 exclusively to their own successes and to the failures of the enemy, the 

 interpretation of failure and success being frequently casuistical in the 

 extreme. 



