He who does not doubt cannot reach the truth.

Don't give in to the temptation of your own certainties, and think before you act. Doubt also helps us have a sense of limits, and not feel omnipotent and infallible.

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There are many interpretations, but the truth is one. And among the many reasons that should lead us to doubt, without obsession and without becoming wary, but simply with an open mind, one stands out above all others: only doubt guarantees us the truth. Simply put, we can think of the police investigation that's now so prevalent in television dramas. A good investigator is one who harbors doubts about the leads he pursues, until the stellar combination of professional skill and luck leads him to the truth. One, not a thousand.

The method of doubt

Methodical doubt, the kind that comes from in-depth analysis, discernment, and the ability to change your mind, is the best way to at least get closer to the truth and avoid the risk of constructing one based on our own beliefs, even if they are unfounded.
Yet doubt scares us. Accustomed as we are, also due to the simplification of language, to to listen People who spout judgments, we have lost the richness of questioning, even in the most profound ways. In the beginning was Socrates. But then came Descartes, Kant, St. Augustine, and Giacomo Leopardi: all fascinated by the art of doubt. Leopardi wrote in the Zibaldone: "Very small is that spirit which is not capable or is difficult to doubt.“And never as in this historical moment, in which we are bombarded by information and fragile certainties, has doubt, as a research method and tool for knowledge, become so useful.

Let's go back to doubting. To question ourselves when we're too convinced we're on the side of truth, and we can't listen to the reasons of others.That's just how I am, and I won't change my mind...“: how many times have you heard this phrase? Well: it is not a sign of intelligence, but rather a proof of weaknessBecause doubting is first and foremost a gesture of strength, of the authority of our thoughts.

«We sow doubt, precisely in the search for truth, then it's up to you to transform it into certainty..."said the Jesuits, who for centuries had educated entire ruling classes. And many years later these words of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his book Introduction to Christianity, confirmed the validity of the Jesuits' teaching: «Both the believer and the unbeliever, each in his own way, share doubt and faith, as long as they do not try to escape from themselves and the truth of their existence.».

How to cultivate doubt

But how do we cultivate doubt? First, by learning to listen to ourselves and others, by not denying discussion, even with very different opinions, and by reflecting before acting. In short, by defeating that form of autism that each of us carries within. Then, by not confusing doubt with ignorance or stupidity.Much knowledge brings more occasion for doubt." Montaigne wrote. Therefore, it is knowledge, the attempt to always move it forward, that leads us to doubt as a sign of our vitality. And if someone tells you, "I can't change my mind, that's just how I am.”, you begin to distrust his certainties.

 

The philosophers of doubt

Doubt fascinated great philosophers of antiquity, such as Plato and Socrates, who recognized its creative power. Both considered doubt a step in thinking, and therefore believed it to be an unavoidable stage in the chiaroscuro of doubt before arriving at the truth. This position would be reaffirmed much later by St. Augustine, for whom faith It is never a fortuitous achievement, but a quest born precisely from doubt. But the one defined as "the philosopher of doubt" is Descartes. And obviously his was not the doubt of the skeptic or the cynic, but a tool for arriving at the truth. Following the path of thought, according to the "cogito ergo sum," I think, therefore I am.

Famous quotes about doubt

  •  Oscar Wilde

Said like this, like all Oscar Wilde's sayings, it seems provocative. But it contains an important truth. People who never doubt, if you think about it, end up becoming boring. They have neither energy nor brilliance. They are incapable of surprising. Those who doubt, on the other hand, are endowed with a wonderful energy, and they even manage to transmit it.

 

  •  William Shakespeare

The line between true and false can sometimes be very thin. Elusive. Veiled by the mechanism of dissimulation that can fool anyone. Except for those who can exercise a reasonable art of doubt, asking themselves a few questions, even when faced with what seems obvious. And perhaps it isn't at all.

 

  • Bertrand Russell

Here too, field testing is useful. If you closely observe people who are always convinced of their opinions, incapable of sustaining any debate, you won't get the impression that they are particularly intelligent. Those who doubt, however, don't consider this exercise of the brain and reason a weakness, and express it openly, thus showing their gray matter at work.

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