Science tells us what we can know, but what we
can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many
things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we
have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance, and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent
insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty, in the presence of vivid hopes and fears, is painful,
but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales. It is not good
either to forget the questions that philosophy asks, or to persuade ourselves that we have found
indubitable answers to them. To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being
paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those
who study it.引自 introduction
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