It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles’Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God’s sake, not to inquire further.
The virtue of the philosopher lies in having the courage to keep questioning assumptions, despite the nagging fears that not only will nothing good come of it, but that it would be a happier life to remain in ignorance.
Arthur Schopenhauer, letter to Johann Goethe, 1819.
If I may attempt to summarize: