"The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very
uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes
through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense,
from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and
from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the
co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man
the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects
rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are
contemptuously rejected. As soon as we begin to philosophize, on the
contrary, we find, as we saw in our opening chapters,
that even the most everyday things lead to problems to which only very
incomplete answers can be given. Philosophy, though
unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts
which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which
enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus,
while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things
are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it
removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who
have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps
alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an
unfamiliar aspect."
Bertrand Russell - The Value of Philosophy
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