When the scientist tells you he does not know the answer,
he is an ignorant man. When he tells you he has a hunch about how it is going
to work, he is uncertain about it. When he is pretty sure of how it is going
to work, and he tells you, "This is the way it is going to work, I'll bet,"
he still is in some doubt. And it is of paramount importance, in order to make
progress, that we recognize this ignorance and this doubt. Because we have the
doubt, we then propose looking in new directions for new ideas. The rate of
the development of science is not the rate at which you make observations alone
but, much more important, the rate at which you create new things to test.
If we were not able or did not desire to look in any new direction, if we did
not have a doubt or recognize ignorance, we would not get any new ideas. There
would be nothing worth checking, because we would know what is true. So what
we call scientific knowledge today is a body of statements of varying degrees
of certainty. Some of them are most unsure; some of them are nearly sure; but
none is absolutely certain. Scientists are used to this. We know that it is
consistent to be able to live and not know. Some people say, "How can you
live without knowing?" I do not know what they mean. I always live without
knowing. That is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know.
This freedom of doubt is an important matter in the sciences and, I believe,
in other fields. It was born of a struggle. It was a struggle to be permitted
to doubt, to be unsure. And I do not want us to forget the importance of the
struggle and, by default, to let the thing fall away. I feel a responsibility
as a scientist who knows the great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance,
and the progress made possible by such a philosophy, progress which is the fruit
of freedom of thought. I feel a responsibility to proclaim the value of this
freedom and to teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed
as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you
are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this
freedom for future generations."
-Richard Feynman