Found a paragraph I copied out three years ago from Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy, chapter 15:
"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... 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 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 traveled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect."
There is risk in following and in not following the conventional wisdom—all believing comes down to a bet. You can be more informed or less, can cast the bet of your interpretation at a bad time or a good time, but it can only be a bet. And I repeat this too much! But what B.R. calls "liberating doubt" amounts to energy. You could fear, or you could suspend disbelief. Both are doubts, see? There are as many shades of doubt as there are of support. Doubt is chromatic, not monotone. But let's admit this is just another spiritual creed, one I prefer to live by...
