"True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant"
- Miguel de Unamuno
About this Quote
This quote by Miguel de Unamuno talks to the value of doubt and ignorance in the pursuit of understanding. He recommends that real science is not about having all the responses, however rather about being open to the possibility that we might not understand everything. He motivates us to be modest and to acknowledge that there is much we do not comprehend. He also recommends that doubt and ignorance can be effective tools in the pursuit of knowledge, as they can lead us to ask questions and seek out new info. By welcoming doubt and lack of knowledge, we can open ourselves up to brand-new possibilities and get a deeper understanding of the world around us. Eventually, Unamuno's quote motivates us to be unbiased and to recognize that there is much we do not know, which this is a crucial part of the scientific process.
"But in Christianity, by contrast, the freedom of the children of God was also freedom from all important worldly interests, from all art and science, etc"
"I think philosophers can do things akin to theoretical scientists, in that, having read about empirical data, they too can think of what hypotheses and theories might account for that data. So there's a continuity between philosophy and science in that way"