I judge the value of human pursuits by their bearing upon human interests; in other words, by their utility; but I should like that we should quite clearly understand what is meant by this word “utility.” In an Englishman’s mouth it generally means that by which we get pudding or praise, or both.
I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word utility, but it by no means includes all I mean by utility. I think knowledge of every kind is useful in proportion as it tends to give people right ideas, which are essential to the foundation of right practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which are no less essential foundations and fertile mothers of every description of error in practice. And inasmuch as, whatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories of things, and even of things that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed from error.
Quotation from: A Lecture on the Study of Biology, in Connection with the Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus. (South Kensington Museum, December 16, 1876). by Thomas Henry Huxley.
