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I attended the panel discussion entitled "Knowledge is Only Won Through Doubt" @ the Wilma last night. What surprised (and pleased me no end) was the interest and willingness of the panelists to let the audience set the agenda for the evening. We were invited, @ the outset, to describe the scenes from Brecht's play which were most memorable to us, and to say why; those descriptions were then used to identify the issues that were talked about for the next 1 1/2 hours...I'd never been to a panel that was so open-ended, so...transactional, so interested in hearing what the audience was thinking--for which I thank you all.

What surprised me, though, especially given the title of the panel, was how very little doubt was expressed by any of the panelists as the evening went on. Each knew a lot; and I learned a lot from all they had to say. But doubt? Actually demonstrating how knowledge is won through doubt? By revising what they thought, in reaction to what someone else said? From Galileo to the 21st century, the desire to say what we know, rather than to question it, or allow it to be changed by what others say...I don't see that changing much. Not yet.