More modesty. Less ideology.

An invitation by Karl Popper, from his lecture Epistemology and the Problem of Peace delivered in Zurich, August 1985, and published in All Life Is Problem Solving.

Intellectuals, who mostly have the best of intentions, must first be persuaded to be a little more modest and not to try to play a leading role. No new ideologies, no new religion. Instead: ‘A little more intellectual modesty.’

We intellectuals know nothing. We grope our way along. Those of us who are scientists ought to be a little more modest and, above all, less dogmatic. Otherwise science will fall by the wayside – science, which is one of man’s greatest and most promising creations.

Intellectuals know nothing. And their lack of modesty, their pre-sumptuousness, is perhaps the greatest obstacle to peace on earth. The greatest hope is that, although they are arrogant, they may not be too stupid to realize it.

When he says “Intellectuals know nothing,” he refers to the fact that “In our infinite ignorance we are all equal“.