Grammar Of Assent
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (commonly abbreviated to the last three words) is John Henry Newman's seminal work. While it was completed in 1870, Newman revealed to friends that it took him 20 years to write the book.
Newman's aim was to show that the scientific standards for evidence and assent are too narrow and inapplicable in concrete life. He argued that logic and its conclusions are not transferable to real life decision making as such. As a result, it is inappropriate to judge the validity of assent in concrete faith by conventional logical standards because paper logic is unequal to the task. "Logic is loose at both ends," he said, meaning that the process of logic initially depends on restrictive assumptions and is thus unable to fit its conclusions neatly into real world situations.
Read more about Grammar Of Assent: Aim and Content, Chapter Breakdown
Famous quotes containing the words grammar of, grammar and/or assent:
“Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”
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“Proverbs, words, and grammar inflections convey the public sense with more purity and precision, than the wisest individual.”
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“As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice—there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.”
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