A Curiosity of Doubts: Penguin Special

Cognition is combining our memories and our knowledge and the input from our senses, and that’s how we decide ‘what we think’.

To interrogate everything, from the pronouncements of ‘experts’ – scientists, doctors, lawyers – to spiritual beliefs; we can even doubt politicians. Through doubt we may review lazy assumptions, hard-fought facts, even abstract ideas. To doubt is one of our great luxuries.

If music is the food of love, then doubt is a core nutritional requirement, and appears to consist mainly of insecurity, palpitations and magic sprinkles.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.16 Bertrand Russell

The art critic Robert Hughes once said, ‘The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.’

Cognition is how we make sense of the world. As you may have noticed, we don’t all see the world the same way. As a child, were you as equally obsessed as I was with knowing if we all saw the same green? How can we know?

Beyond immediate sensory information, we create our perceptions of the social and physical world using a range of highly personal sources collected across our lifetimes.

Every pioneer, regardless of discipline, opens doors to reveal more doors. That is the beautiful part of the human search for truth and meaning. Any discovery that we think gives clarity seems to create deeper and deeper layers of intricacy.