"That though we are certain of many things, yet that Certainty is no absolute Infallibility, there still remains the possibility of our being mistaken in all matters of humane Belief and Inquiry"
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Certainty, Glanvill warns, is the feeling that gets us into trouble, not the proof that gets us out. The sentence performs its own argument: it starts with a concession to human confidence ("we are certain of many things"), then calmly pulls the floorboards up from under it. By separating "Certainty" from "absolute Infallibility", he’s attacking a common shortcut in reasoning: the slide from "I’m sure" to "I can’t be wrong". That distinction sounds obvious now, but in the 17th century it was a live cultural fault line, with religion, natural philosophy, and politics all competing to claim final authority.
The subtext is a refusal of intellectual tyranny. Glanvill isn’t just promoting doubt for doubt’s sake; he’s lobbying for a posture of inquiry at a time when dogma could be enforced socially and institutionally. His phrasing - "humane Belief and Inquiry" - matters. He’s carving out a human-scale domain where fallibility isn’t a moral failing but a structural condition. That word "humane" quietly demotes grand metaphysical certainty and elevates method, revisability, and modesty.
Contextually, Glanvill sits near the early Royal Society moment: the rise of experimental science, the hangover of civil war, the breakdown of inherited certainties. The line reads like a bridge between religious skepticism and scientific empiricism: keep your convictions, but don’t confuse them with guarantees. It’s an ethic of epistemic humility designed to keep inquiry alive when certainty wants to end the conversation.
The subtext is a refusal of intellectual tyranny. Glanvill isn’t just promoting doubt for doubt’s sake; he’s lobbying for a posture of inquiry at a time when dogma could be enforced socially and institutionally. His phrasing - "humane Belief and Inquiry" - matters. He’s carving out a human-scale domain where fallibility isn’t a moral failing but a structural condition. That word "humane" quietly demotes grand metaphysical certainty and elevates method, revisability, and modesty.
Contextually, Glanvill sits near the early Royal Society moment: the rise of experimental science, the hangover of civil war, the breakdown of inherited certainties. The line reads like a bridge between religious skepticism and scientific empiricism: keep your convictions, but don’t confuse them with guarantees. It’s an ethic of epistemic humility designed to keep inquiry alive when certainty wants to end the conversation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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