Finding Truth at Lehigh
By: Sean McKeever
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” Nietzsche
“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” J.S. Mill
“All the principles of sceptics, stoics, atheists, etc., are true. But their conclusions are false, because the opposite principles are also true.” Blaise Pascal
During my time at Lehigh, I have never shied away from an argument; I have never been afraid to give my opinion. More importantly, though, I have never been afraid to listen to someone else’s opinion. While most of my opinions have not changed completely, many of them have been shifted, shaped, and molded and many others lost some of the dogmatic edge that they had when I arrived at Lehigh.
During these past five years, I have become convinced of the complexity and immensity of Truth. It is a sticky concept that is not easily grasped. Truth is made up of many truths. We can understand many of these truths, but I am not sure if we can ever truly understand all of them. Even if we could, though, we would not automatically know Truth because it is difficult to understand the relationships between the truths that make up Truth.
With a concept as massive as Truth, it cannot be taken lightly. To truly dig into its depths takes effort. Everything must be questioned. Every conceivable alternative must be explored. Nothing can be taken for granted.
As John Stuart Mill wrote, “if opponents of all important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest arguments which the most skillful devil’s advocate can conjure up.” In this passage from On Liberty, Mill explained why it is so important to understand and even defend positions that you may not agree with:
“What Cicero practiced as the means of forensic success, requires to be imitated by all who study any subject in order to arrive at the truth. He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. This is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of, else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. … So essential is this discipline to a real understanding of moral and human subjects, that if opponents of all important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest arguments which the most skillful devil’s advocate can conjure up.”
The ability to follow Mill’s words is important. He wrote, “No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.” According to Mill, no one can truly hold any opinion or truly claim the Truth or even truth without first considering as many alternative arguments as possible. No one can be considered a great thinker who has not considered the alternatives to his thoughts.
That is what college is all about. It is about thinking for ourselves and questioning everything that we have ever taken to be true. This is not to say that we should privilege the new information we receive over what we have previously been taught or that we should throw off every vestige of knowledge and authority that the past has given us. But it does mean that we should be prepared to discover new elements of truth and, if necessary, to disbelieve what we once thought was truth.
For that to work, the college atmosphere must be one full of diverse opinions that have the room to grow and the respect to be voiced. Sadly, it has been my experience at Lehigh that not all positions are given those privileges. This is an injustice that should outrage everyone in the Lehigh community. Even if the silenced or belittled positions are wrong, it handicaps the whole university when they are not allowed to grow and be voiced. If the silenced positions are wrong, those who hold them will be incentivized to dogmatically cling to them, and they will not discover the truth. More unfortunate, though, are those who do not hold them. They will be deprived of knowing and understanding the belittled positions and so will be deprived of the opportunity to grow in what they believe, because they will not be able to sharpen their beliefs against these alternative beliefs, even if they are false. Most unfortunately, though, it is possible that these silenced beliefs are True or that they at least possess elements of Truth that would be lost or improperly understood without the expression of those beliefs.
During my time at Lehigh, I have become convinced that these two elements are the most important part of an education: (1) that all ideologies are allowed to be freely expressed and are presented as possible truths and (2) that all students take the time to understand, process, and consider these ideologies in an open-minded way.
While this is the only true education, it is not a comfortable commitment. As Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” demonstrates, true education is a painful process. When it is done right, everything you believe about reality will be questioned and some (or all) of the truths you hold dear will be shown to be false. This is a painful process, but it is the only way to Truth.
As I say farewell to Lehigh, it is my sincere wish that the Lehigh community starts truly educating its students. It is my wish that professors begin teaching all ideologies as though they were potentially wholly or partially Truth. It is my desire that students do not feel like they need to keep silent certain ideas or ideologies that may not mesh with the reigning ideas and ideologies of the day.
Short of this lofty systemic change, it is my wish that all students become the skillful devil’s advocates that present the ideas that are being intentionally or unintentionally silenced. It is my hope that students have more discussions with each other and that they argue about the topics that really matter. If they agree with each other, it is my hope that one, the other, or both will take a position that is contrary to their own and will argue it as if they believed that it were true. It is my hope that every student looks at their own beliefs and argues with themselves about them. It is my hope that every student undertakes the difficult process of emerging from the cave and staring into the light, no matter what the light turns out to look like.
While this is a never ending process, it is only after this educative journey has been sincerely undertaken that one can truly begin to change the world for good. Italo Calvino wrote in Invisible Cities: “And Polo said: ‘The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by living together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.’” We can only escape the inferno and begin changing the inferno into a pleasant existence after we have discovered what is and is not inferno. That can only be done through the painful process of education. If our generation is going to make the world a better place, we all need to take the time here and now to be truly educated, so we may possibly find Truth.
