Excerpt from Knowledge, Belief and Certitude: An Inquiry Into Conclusions

I wish the reader to know that he has in his hands the record, as well as the results, of a genuine inquiry. When years ago I wrote the first part of this book I had no foresight of the conclusions which afterwards emerged. At that time it seemed to me not unlikely that no conclusion would be reached except that nothing can be known about knowledge. The work has since then undergone repeated revisions, but the first chapters remain substantially as they were originally written: and the successive parts of the book exhibit the course of thought by which the final results were brought to light. If the conclusions surprise the reader, they will not surprise him more than they surprised the writer. A faint foreshadowing of the final result may be seen in the first chapters, but, nevertheless, when those chapters were written, a dense fog covered my mind - I could not discern anything clearly and surely as to the nature of knowledge.

For the discovery of the conclusions reached by this inquiry I am abundantly glad and thankful. So far as they are true - and I have no doubt that they are true in the main - they come from the only Source of all truth: I am but the instrument through which they have been revealed. Criticism will remove the haze, which, arising from my imperfect apprehension and poor expression, still surrounds them, will bring them into clearer light and give them sharper outlines.

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