Industrial Progress and Human Economics by James Hartness
page 35 of 93 (37%)
page 35 of 93 (37%)
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In doing so, our task will be to examine two principal elements: one, the means on which we depend for interpreting the information that is available; and the other, the source and character of the information. The means may be considered analogous to the navigator's instruments, and is no less a thing than the brain or mental machinery; and the information is simply the world about us as seen in the existing things, such as machinery, methods, popular notions, textbooks, etc., all of which may be classed as environments, and may be considered as analogous to the charts and other publications of our worthy example. Like the mariner, we must determine the degree of reliability of all these sources of information and our means for interpreting observed facts. When we have ascertained this we will know what allowance to make from the "observed" to get the actual facts. With this knowledge we will be able to accurately determine both our starting-point and best course. The importance of considering our own minds will be seen when we realize that every new fact taken in must in a measure conform to the previous ideas. If some of these old ideas are erroneous, the mind must be more or less ready to discard them. It is very difficult to dislodge deep-seated convictions. Contradictory ideas are not assimilated. Only one of them is actually accepted. Even when to the objective reasoning they seem false, they frequently |
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