My daughter had just turned 4, and as we drove the winding streets of Colorado Springs she asked if this was the way to the store.

"It is," I said.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure," I replied (not because I wasn't, but because it reminds me of a dialogue from one of my favorite stories).

"Why aren't you all the way sure?"

She asked this with such genuine curiosity, and it opened the door to a fun philosophical conversation.

This was my first experience of such an early verbal expression of the desire for certainty. While the conversation touched only on trivial matters, I find the idea of certainty thoroughly distasteful. It kills curiosity and stunts intellectual growth.

And it gets worse as one grows older.

For a thorough exposition of how the idea of certainty was regarded among the major figures of the scientific revolution, see Robert Pasneau's After Certainty.

More content here can be found under the theme of Socratic wisdom.