ARGUMENTS FOR TESTING SIR,—Yes, indeed; we must use our minds
as well as our emotions. But all philosophers know that ends are decided by the emotions, and that reason is only applicable to the discussion of means. (Or, of course, to the clarification, as opposed to the ultimate choice of ends.) My emotions lead me to hold that nuclear war is the worst of all conceivable evils. It may be that Mr. Maddox agrees with me; in which c:Ise the argument between us could be pursued in purely reasonable terms. But if, as seems more likely, Mr. Maddox would make an emotional choice of nuclear war before Russian occupation, then all we can do with our reasoning faculties is to clarify the full implications of each other's ends. Neither of us can possibly demonstrate by reason that the ends of the other are wrong.
In any case, what 1 objected to in his article was not its method of argument, but precisely its emo- tional colouring. To use phrases like `recipes' or `not to be sneezed at' when writing about nuclear weapons does, surely, suggest a certain loss of con- tact with the real nature of the subject PHILIP TOYNDEB The Barn House, Brockweir, near Chepstow, Mon
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