John Stuart Mill argues against the entirely sceptical attitude which says people or governments are not justified in doing anything because they might be wrong. Mill is not a sceptic in this sense. That does not mean that when we act we are assuming that we are infallible. We are just doing what we must do, for it is always impossible to do nothing. If we took such an approach Mills says,
“we should leave all of our interests uncared for, and all our duties unperformed. An objection which applies to all conduct can be no valid objection to any conduct in particular. It is the duty of governments, and of individuals, to form the truest opinions they can; to form them carefully and never impose them upon others unless they are quite sure of being right. But when they are sure (such reasoners may say), it is not conscientiousness but cowardice to shrink from acting on their opinions, and allow doctrines which they honestly think dangerous to the welfare of mankind, either in this life or in another, to be scattered abroad without restraint, because other people, in less enlightened time, have persecuted opinions now believed to be true. Let us take care, it may be said, not to make the same mistake: but governments and nations have made mistakes in other things, which are not denied to be fit subjects for the exercise of authority: they have laid on bad taxes, made unjust wars. Ought we therefore to lay on no taxes, and under whatever provocation, make no wars? Men and governments must act to the best of their ability. There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life. ”
This is really an argument against paralysis. Some have argued that the true sceptic must do nothing. Mill respectfully disagrees. I side with Mill. We have a duty to seek the truth. We have no duty to find it or claim we have found it.
As a result we are justified in acting if we have done the best we can to make sure our actions are justified in the circumstances. First, we must do our best to come to the right conclusions. In seeking truth we must aim to be ideal observers and thinkers, diligent and free from bias. That is not easy to do. We must of course, always be open after that to the possibility that is always there, that we are wrong. We must be prepared to change when new evidence or new valid arguments showed that we made a mistake. We must not be too timid. That is just as bad as acting rashly and can cause just as much harm. Of course this exactly why we must permit the most vigorous debate about all our ideas and must permit all free discussion of ideas no matter how repugnant—because we might be wrong. We know we are not infallible. We should never assume the mantle of infallibility.
As Mill says,
“There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation. Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action; and on no other terms can a being with human faculties have any rational assurance of being right.”
We need to leave all question open for debate in order to be confident that our decisions are right ones. That gives us no guarantee that we are right, but it gives us a guarantee that we have done the best we can possibly do. If we have stifled no debate and encouraged all possible dissenting views we can have the greatest possible confidence that what we think or do is right. That is why free discussion is so important. It gives us the confidence that we are probably right, until better evidence or better reasoning shows us the error of our ways.