"Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd"
About this Quote
Besant draws a bright, almost surgical line between skepticism as intellectual hygiene and skepticism as ego in costume. The first clause defends a posture that feels modern: don’t sign onto claims without evidence. It’s the Enlightenment baseline, the posture that keeps charlatans, dogmas, and wishful thinking from colonizing the mind. But she doesn’t let the skeptic get too comfortable. The second clause pivots hard, calling out the quieter vice that often rides alongside “rationality”: mistaking the boundaries of one’s personal experience for the boundaries of reality.
The sentence works because it exposes how easily “I’m just being rational” becomes a mask for incuriosity. Besant isn’t arguing for credulity; she’s arguing for epistemic humility. Proof matters, but so does the ability to imagine that other people, other cultures, other disciplines, and other kinds of testimony might reveal things you haven’t personally witnessed. Her target is the provincial mind: the person who treats the self as the measuring stick for the universe.
Context sharpens the edge. Besant moved from secular freethought into Theosophy, a trajectory that made her unusually invested in distinguishing responsible doubt from knee-jerk dismissal. In late Victorian Britain, “science” could be a tool of liberation or a cudgel of cultural superiority. This line pushes back against a smug empiricism that sneers at anything it can’t immediately verify, while still preserving the core discipline of requiring reasons. It’s a compact ethic for navigating modern life: demand evidence, but don’t confuse your own horizon with the world’s.
The sentence works because it exposes how easily “I’m just being rational” becomes a mask for incuriosity. Besant isn’t arguing for credulity; she’s arguing for epistemic humility. Proof matters, but so does the ability to imagine that other people, other cultures, other disciplines, and other kinds of testimony might reveal things you haven’t personally witnessed. Her target is the provincial mind: the person who treats the self as the measuring stick for the universe.
Context sharpens the edge. Besant moved from secular freethought into Theosophy, a trajectory that made her unusually invested in distinguishing responsible doubt from knee-jerk dismissal. In late Victorian Britain, “science” could be a tool of liberation or a cudgel of cultural superiority. This line pushes back against a smug empiricism that sneers at anything it can’t immediately verify, while still preserving the core discipline of requiring reasons. It’s a compact ethic for navigating modern life: demand evidence, but don’t confuse your own horizon with the world’s.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|
More Quotes by Annie
Add to List
