“The great masters do not take any model, or any theory, quite so seriously as the rest of us. They know that it is, after all, only a model, only a theory, and as such possibly replacable.”

From the masters to the masses

On the highest level, then, the model or theory, is recognised as provisional. The real question is how far down the intellectual scale this cautious view of the nature of theory extends.

In our age I think it would be fair to say that the ease with which a scientific theory assumes the dignity and rigidity of fact varies inversely with the individual’s scientific education. In discussion with wholly uneducated audiences one will sometimes find matter which real scientists would regard as highly speculative more firmly believed than many things within our real knowledge; the popular imago of the Cave Man rank as hard fact, and the life of Caesar or Napoleon or Jesus as doubtful rumour.

We must not, however, hastily assume that the situation was quite the same in other ages. The mass media which have in our time created a popular scientism, a caricature of the true sciences, did not exist, say, in the Middle Ages. The igorant were more aware of their ignorance then than now.