We have seen, at the end of the preceding chapter, that logical implication is often an enemy of dignity. The subject of dignity is not usually considered in treatises on logic, but, as we have remarked, many mathematicians implicitly or explicitly seem to fear either that the dignity of mathematics will be impaired if she follows out conclusions logically, or that only an act of faith can save us from the belief that, if we followed out conclusions logically, we should find out something alarming about the past, present, or future of mathematics.

Thus it seems necessary to inquire rather more closely into the nature of dignity, with a view to the discovery of whether it is, as is commonly supposed, a merit in life and logic.

The chief use of dignity is to veil ignorance. Thus, it is well known that the most dignified people, as a rule, are schoolmasters, and schoolmasters are usually so occupied with teaching that they have no time to learn anything. And because dignity is used to hide ignorance, it is plain that impudence is not always the opposite of dignity, but that dignity is sometimes impudence. Dignity is said to inspire respect; and this may be in part why respect for others is an error of judgment and self-respect is ridiculous.

Self-respect is, of course, self-esteem. William James has remarked that self-esteem depends, not simply upon our success, but upon the ratio of our success to our pretensions, and can therefore be increased by diminishing our pretensions. Thus if a man is successful, but only then, can he be both ambitious and dignified. James also implies that happiness increases with self-esteem. Likeness of thought with one’s friends, then, does not make one happy, for otherwise a man who esteemed himself little would be indeed happy. Also if a man is unhappy he could not, from our premisses, by the principles of the syllogism and of contraposition, be dignified—a conclusion which should be fatal to many novelists’ heroes.

A reflection on pessimism to which this discussion gives rise is the following: It would appear that a man’s self-esteem would be increased by a conviction of the unworthiness of his neighbours. A man, therefore, who thinks that the world and all its inhabitants, except himself, are very bad, should be extremely happy. In fact, the effects would hardly be distinguishable from those of optimism. And optimism, as everybody knows, is a state of mind induced by stupidity.

CHAPTER XXI