The 20th century mathematician, logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell is reported to have said that

he would never die for his beliefs because he might be wrong. In the code of intellectual conduct this is
called The Fallibility Principle. It simply says that whenever we go about discussing and debating things,
we have to bear in mind that we are fallible and our position and views may not be tenable always.
There may come a point in any sort of discourse or confrontation when we have to give up our initial
position in favor of the truth even if it comes from the adversary or even if it's at loggerheads with our
ego. In simpler words, it's accepting that we may be wrong, full stop. Along with this principle, there's
The Principle of Truth-Seeking which states that the main aim of every discussion or exchange of ideas is
to arrive at what is true or at least get closer thereto. Both these principles are equally important, work
in tandem and for that matter complementary to each other. If we are to seek truth, we must first do
away with whatever false we are holding. We must surrender and forsake our beliefs in case of their
falsity for the sake of truth. As by abiding by these principles many a positive thing branches forth, I wish
to see them through a wider perspective of our lives and apply them whenever and wherever they are
fit to find their application. I will discuss how these principles can be used to secure a better and tolerant
society and how they are utilized in Science, Philosophy, History and other departments of human
knowledge for the accumulation of the same and for personal intellectual growth.

In employing these principles in our lives, both social and intellectual, we can create a seedbed where
tolerance blooms and blossoms; a seedbed for ideas, intellectual growth and at the same time an
amicable settlement of dissent. Most of the time we find it subliminally hard to be tolerant for others,
their views and beliefs merely because of the fact that we are not ready to accept that we might be
wrong in our own set of beliefs and views. We fail to hold to the fallibility principle and our ego gets in
the way of our reaching to the truth. The famous physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once
said, 'The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.'
There can be no better way of fooling yourself than believing that you are immune to it by sticking to
your own bigotry and dogmatism. Truth-is-me-come-what-may attitude mars intellectuality. It arrests
the growth of epistemic development by making us self-opinionated and self-absorbed, too much
obdurate not to listen to others. This is where Fallibility and Truth seeking come to our rescue and fit us
out with tolerance which is one of the boons that issue from adopting these principles. When we are
ready to accept that we are not the only ones owning the copyright on truth or what is right, we open
the doors for the views of others to be entertained and adopted. Wiping every bias and prejudice off the
slate of our mind and aiming for truth only that can come from anyone and any side, we readily find
ourselves on the path of intellectual and social progress to which tolerance is one of the keys. We must
always be ready to listen to and entertain the arguments of others as a means to finding out the truth.

Just as dissent is natural and disagreement desirable sometimes in our social lives, it's more so in
Science. Nowhere can we find a better instance of these principles than in Science itself. Science makes
its way towards knowledge through fallibility. Certainty is unachievable everywhere. So is it in Science.
The only thing we can be certain of is that we can never be certain of anything. Although it's a truism
that laws of nature do not change, we can't be sure. The famous Scottish philosopher David Hume has
illustrated this fact in connection with his infamous formulation of Problem of Induction. Even though it
does, and has been rising from time immemorial, we can't be sure that it will tomorrow. He was talking
about the sun. Its rising (if it 'rises' at all in the first place) is uncertain and cannot be demonstrably
established. According to Karl Popper, the 20th century philosopher of science, one of the essential
ingredients of any scientific theory is its potential for being falsified. In fact, what distinguishes a
scientific theory from non-scientific one is the former's being capable of getting discarded in favor of the
one that has the same potential but yet to be falsified. The highest status a scientific theory can get is
that it's not yet been disconfirmed. Accordingly we may never get to the absolute truth, as it's evermore
a step closer towards it through trial and error. This is the way through which the growth of human
knowledge proceeds.

Similarly, in Philosophy whose essence lies in dialectics i.e. discussion and debate, fallibility is the first
rule you should equip yourself with before entering as an interlocutor in any philosophical discourse
whose age-old enterprise has been the search for the truth. The word 'Philosophy' literally means the
love for wisdom. There can be no wisdom than knowing that you know nothing as was taught by the
Athenian martyr Socrates. Who knows that the substance of the famous Delphic aphorism gnothi se
auton (Know Thyself) was not 'Know thy limits'? Aren't we trapped in our Phanerons eternally, far from
being able to perceive Ding an sichs.

Let me here once again invoke the words of Bertrand Russell. He says, 'A stupid man's report of what a
clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something
that he can understand.' This pithy observation expresses a profound reality when it comes to so-called
historical truths. Add to it the words of one of my friends that 'an activist's report of what a clever man
says is never accurate, because he consciously translates what he hears into something that serves his
cause. The proof for the past has always been indirect. Past happenings can easily be molded in such a
way as to set one's own record right, which again is detrimental to intellectual evolution of an individual
as well as society collectively. In order to guard against this, the duo is all ready to pitch in with the one
who wants to get away from biases of the past that have been incarcerating him. Once you accept that
those whom you have put on a pedestal have not always been the ones picking up the ball of truth and
running with it, you begin to see history of any people or event objectively.

The Principle of Fallibility and Principle of Truth-Seeking are the two lenses of the spectacles of
objectivity and intellectuality that help the one who puts them on to develop scientific outlook and an
honest overall personality.
Ubaidullah Pandit has studied Law and Information Technology