ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge
The Descent of Man, Volume I · Introduction · excerpt
Original English. 1871. Clause from the introduction; Darwin is discussing confident declarations about the limits of scientific inquiry.
Darwin is responding to people who confidently declare a scientific problem impossible to solve. His observation is not proof that the least certain speaker is always right. Expertise can justify confidence, and hesitation can have many causes. The useful distinction is between confidence supported by understanding and confidence protected by not knowing the complications. In conversation, the tone of a claim often reaches us before its evidence does. Asking what supports the claim, what its limits are, and what would change the speaker's mind can be more informative than asking how firmly it is delivered. Certainty alone does not settle the question.
A question for today
What confident claim deserves a closer look at its evidence?
