Monday, February 26, 2018
I Don't Know
Marc Bloch (1886-1944), The Historian's Craft, tr. Peter Putnam (New York: Vintage Books, 1953), pp. 59-60:
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It is always disagreeable to say: "I do not know. I cannot know." It must not be said except after an energetic, even a desperate search. But there are times when the sternest duty of the savant, who has first tried every means, is to resign himself to his ignorance and to admit it honestly.
Il est toujours désagréable de dire: «je ne sais pas», «je ne peux pas savoir». Il ne faut le dire qu'après avoir énergiquement, désespérément cherché. Mais il y a des moments où le plus impérieux devoir du savant est, ayant tout tenté, de se résigner à l'ignorance et de l'avouer honnêtement.
