Note 37 — Chapter XIX · CHARMIDES.

“Whoever has reflected on the generation of ideas in his own mind, or has investigated the causes of misunderstandings among mankind, will be obliged to proclaim as a fact deeply seated in human nature — That most of the misunderstandings and contradictions among men, most of the controversies and errors both in science and in society, arise usually from our assuming (consciously or unconsciously) fundamental maxims and fundamental facts as if they were self-evident, and as if they must be assumed by every one else besides. Accordingly we never think of closely examining them, until at length experience has taught us that these self-evident matters are exactly what stand most in need of proof, and what form the special root of divergent opinions.” — (L. O. Bröcker — Untersuchungen über die Glaubwürdigkeit der alt-Römischen Geschichte, p. 490.)