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Full Idea
Why cannot a wise man dare to doubt anything and everything?
Gist of Idea
Why can't a wise man doubt everything?
Source
Michel de Montaigne (Apology for Raymond Sebond [1580], p.0562)
Book Ref
Montaigne,Michel de: 'The Complete Essays', ed/tr. Screech,M.A. [Penguin 1987], p.562
A Reaction
This question seems to be the start of the Enlightenment Project, of attempting to prove everything. MacIntyre warns of the dangers of this in ethical theory. The story of modern philosophy is the discovery of its impossibility. E.g. Davidson on truth.
| 6258 | Virtue is the distinctive mark of truth, and its greatest product [Montaigne] |
| 6259 | Why can't a wise man doubt everything? [Montaigne] |
| 6260 | Sceptics say there is truth, but no means of making or testing lasting judgements [Montaigne] |
| 6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
| 6262 | We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne] |
| 6263 | No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air [Montaigne] |