A belief’s utility does not make it true

Evidence

The absolutist case for the benefits of subject docility continues to have plenty of utilitarian force: lowered expenditures on surveillance and repression, and the smoother concertation of productive energies for projects of which many of the benefits are likely to extend far beyond ruling circles. But for a belief to be consequentially advantageous is very far from its being true. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1066

Categorization

• DEFINE: The utility-truth distinction sharply frames that docility can be socially efficient without being genuinely grounded in trust.
• XREF: connects to: Asserting that something is valuable does not make its value indestructible under mechanization. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 635