John Locke on the Limits of Human Reason
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Alexander Fraser (New York: Dover, 1959), p. 31.
Men, extending their inquiries beyond their capacities, and letting
their thought wander into those depths where they can find no sure
footing, it is no wonder that they raise questions and multiply
disputes, which, never coming to any clear resolution, are proper only
to continue and increase their doubts, and to confirm them at last in
perfect skepticism. Whereas were the capacities of our understandings
well considered, the extent of our knowledge once discovered, and the
horizon found which sets the bounds between the enlightened and dark
parts of things; between what is and what is not comprehensible by us,
men would perhaps with less scruple acquiesce in the avowed ignorance
of the one, and employ their thoughts and discourse with more advantage
and satisfaction in the other.
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