The importance to human life of having true beliefs about matters of
fact is a thing too notorious. We live in a world of realities that
can be infinitely useful or infinitely harmful. Ideas that tell us
which of them to expect count as the true ideas in all this primary
sphere of verification, and the pursuit of such ideas is a primary
human duty. The possession of truth, so far from being here an end
in itself, is only a preliminary means towards other vital
satisfactions. If I am lost in the woods and starved, and find what
looks like a cow-path, it is of the utmost importance that I should
think of a human habitation at the end of it, for if I do so and
follow it, I save myself. The true thought is useful here because
the house which is its object is useful. The practical value of true
ideas is thus primarily derived from the practical importance of
their objects to us. Their objects are, indeed, not important at all
times. I may on another occasion have no use for the house; and then
my idea of it, however verifiable, will be practically irrelevant,
and had better remain latent. Yet since almost any object may some
day become temporarily important, the advantage of having a general
stock of extra truths, of ideas that shall be true of merely
possible situations, is obvious.
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