Beliefs should be like fluid entities within the mind, some malleable and doubtful, others more viscous and certain. But feeling certain should never be confused with being incontestable. Once a belief is allowed to solidify, it becomes like a shackle on the mind, inhibiting exploration, learning and growth. A fluid mind should never allow a belief to be so hardened that it is beyond rational scrutiny. A fluid mind always invites rational examination upon even its most cherished convictions.
“Empirical science pursues its quest by devising images of the empirical world under study and by testing these images through exacting scrutiny of the empirical world.... Every part of the act of scientific inquiry is subject to the test of the empirical world and has to be validated through such a test.... The concepts used throughout the couurse of the study are in special need of scrutiny to see if they match in the empirical world what they purport to refer to.”
—Herbert Blumer
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