Used properly, doubt is neither a dead end, nor an obstacle to be overcome, but a guide. That is not to say, however, that it is merely a means to an end, something that can be left behind once it has done its task. In order to maintain an awareness of other perspectives, and to keep testing the robustness of your own, doubt always needs to be a close companion, asking the difficult questions.
ReadIn their introduction, the editors say: “If this is not one of the best letter-writers of the 20th century, we are ready to eat our respective hats.” Gentlemen, you can leave your hats on.
ReadIs it really impossible to have your cake and eat it too? Only if you want to eat and keep all of it: there’s no contradiction in cutting a slice and keeping most for later. What can look like pedantry is actually a powerful rigour that can remove some contradictions by simply showing that they are no such thing.
ReadIt’s very difficult to maintain a thriving curiosity without it being somewhat random. In his essay on curiosity, philosopher David Hume noted that there is a pleasure to be had simply in the “invention and discovery” of truth, whatever it might be. The curious will find themselves drawn to anything that stimulates this delight.
ReadRidicule and misrepresentation are in some sense an occupational hazard for the philosopher. “The best philosophers are always walking a tightrope where one misstep either side is just nonsense,” he says. “That’s why caricatures are too easy to be worth doing. You can make any philosopher – any, Aristotle, Kant, you name it – look like a complete flaming idiot with just a slightest little tweak.”
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