Keeping Errors at Bay

Keeping Errors at Bay : Bertrand Russell, England (1872-1970)

Summary

Russell discusses how to avoid errors and offers some solutions in his essay "Keeping Errors at Bay." To avoid the different erroneous opinions to which people are prone, he uses extremely familiar examples. He contends that experimentation, common sense, and critical thinking can set us free from the majority of misconceptions and erroneous beliefs.

Men and women both genuinely believe that their own sex is superior and excellent. We are all convinced that our country is better than all others, no matter where we are from. But we need to be mindful that there might be places or beings in the galaxy that are more advanced than we are. This generates the fear that is the fundamental driver of cruelty and superstition. Wisdom is what eliminates fear.

According to Russell, bias, pride, greed, and discrimination are the driving forces behind the majority of contemporary humans. They take great pride in their gender, power, knowledge, and race. He provides several examples to back up his claims. In his day, Aristotle thought that women had fewer teeth than men. Similar to salamanders and unicorns, which were well-known to ancient and medieval authors, none of them felt that it was important to avoid making dogmatic claims about them.

Russell believes that error is frequently caused by fear. It can manifest both directly and indirectly and can take many different forms, such as dread of the dark, fear of the unknown, and fear of death. In actuality, evil arises from fear. We can prevent such mistakes if we apply scientific knowledge and methodologies. There is nothing more common than evaluation in daily life, but for a solid evaluation to occur, one needs to set up proper evidence gathering procedures, applicable criteria, and judge the evidence in accordance with experiment, observation, and factual data.

Application of Four levels

• Literal Comprehension
  • "Keeping Errors at Bay" explains what causes errors and how to avoid them, as well as the fundamental methods for getting rid of erroneous beliefs, feelings of superiority, fear, and bias. If we apply scientific procedures, observations, experiences, common sense, and critical thinking, according to Russell, we can avoid the majority of misconceptions and erroneous beliefs. He believed that people in the current age were proud of their race, nation, gender, power, and discriminations. This trend was not unnoticed in the past either. As an illustration, Aristotle once thought that women have fewer teeth than men. According to Russell, we shouldn't make snap judgments about things or people based solely on our own opinions. Decisions should be based on facts, not assumptions. We should also be mindful of the viewpoints of others who differ from us.
• Interpretation
  • The author of this essay may be attempting to convince us that failing to take care when forming opinions frequently results in them going in the incorrect direction. Therefore, we must always exercise caution and be conscious of our biases. The purpose of the essay is to explain why it is impossible for people to see the truth. They fail to recognize the issue. Without having a thorough understanding, they believe they are experts in everything. It indicates that we occasionally make mistakes and that we frequently fail to evaluate and contrast our ideas with those of others. We excessively neglect things because we are proud of ourselves. As a result, we make mistakes or do wrong. Russell discusses a variety of reasons why people form foolish or incorrect ideas. We commit numerous mistakes throughout life's stages because we harbor prejudice, superiority, superior notions, and feelings of fear and discrimination. Therefore, this essay aims to raise our awareness of superstitious and absurd views. Positive attitudes, linguistic and cultural awareness, respect for opposing viewpoints, and knowledge are therefore the fundamental traits for avoiding mistakes in life.
• Critical Thinking
  • From the past to the present, we have suffered from prejudice and blind beliefs. Despite the advancement of science and technology, people continue to hold illogical beliefs. Russell claims that if we apply scientific principles, common sense, observation, and analysis to our daily lives, we can eliminate the majority of errors. Simply said, wisdom is the ability to avoid mistakes. However, some issues appear to be contentious; for instance, "How can we say that working without making mistakes is only a small portion of great learning? How can we compare such things to those of others? Who can remain without making mistakes? How can a person know whether something is an error or not? Can we change our minds not to make mistakes? Why can't people find out the fact and truth easily? What are the different kinds of truth? How to know that whose idea I am following?
• Assimilation
  • This essay is incredibly engaging, educational, convincing, and moral. After reading this essay, I have come to the realization that the primary reasons we make mistakes in our daily lives are egotism, blind faith, prejudice, fear, and a sense of superiority based on level, class, gender, race, religion, and area. As a result, it has taught me a valuable lesson about how to enhance my positive outlook, understanding of equality, equity, and justice, use of science and technology, sense of freedom, and cooperation with all people in order to avoid making careless, serious, or ridiculous mistakes in daily life. If this is the case, life is resolved wisely and moves forward successfully.

Referance

(Bastakoti, (2007). A Combined Guide To Compulsory English. Kathmandu: Kalyani Prakshan)