The Ethics of Uncertainty

Uncertainty makes most people uneasy.

We want firm answers, clear lines, and final truths.

But Karl Popper argued that the willingness to live with uncertainty is not a flaw -- it is the foundation of wisdom.

Every advance in knowledge begins with doubt.

Every moral improvement begins with the admission that we might be wrong.

The ethics of uncertainty is simple:

Act on what you know, while staying ready to learn.

It is courage without arrogance. Conviction without cruelty.

Dogma demands obedience; ethics demands honesty.

A civilized mind holds beliefs lightly enough to revise them, yet firmly enough to act with care.

To live ethically is not to know everything.

It is to keep learning while you act with restraint.

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Next in the series:
Critical Rationalism and Faith

Series index:
Open Society -- Table of Contents