the risk of error, and that in some
cases it renders the risk so small as to be practically negligible. To
do more than this is not possible in a world where mistakes must occur;
and more than this no prudent advocate of philosophy would claim to have
performed.

CHAPTER XV. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY

Having now come to the end of our brief and very incomplete review of
the problems of philosophy, it will be well to consider, in conclusion,
what is the value of philosophy and why it ought to be studied. It is
the more necessary to consider this question, in view of the fact that
many men, under the influence of science or of practical affairs, are
inclined to doubt whether philosophy is anything better than innocent
but useless trifling, hair-splitting distinctions, and controversies on
matters concerning which knowledge is impossible.

This view of philosophy appears to result, partly from a wrong
conception of the ends of life, partly from a wrong conception of the
kind of goods which philosophy strives to achieve. Physical science,
through the medium of inventions, is useful to innumerable people who
are wholly ignorant of it; thus the study of physical science is to
be recommended, not only, or primarily, because of the effect on the
student, but rather because of the effect on mankind in general. Thus
utility does not belong to philosophy. If the study of philosophy has
any value at all for others than students of philosophy, it must be only
indirectly, through its effects upon the lives of those who study it.
It is in these effects, therefore, if anywhere, that the value of
philosophy must be primarily sought.

But further, if we are not to fail in our endeavour to determine the
value of philosophy, we must first free our minds from the prejudices
of what are wrongly called 'practical' men. The 'practical' man, as
this word is often used, is one who recognizes only material needs, who
realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the
necessity of providing food for the mind. If all men were well off, if
poverty and disease had been reduced to their lowest possible point,
there would still remain much to be done to produce a valuable society;
and even in the existing world the goods of the mind are at least as
important as the goods of the body. It is exclusively among the goods of
the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; and only those who
are not indifferent to these goods