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The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions that have grown up in his mind without the co- operation of consent of his deliberate reason.

Russell theorizes that the value of philosophy appears in its very uncertainty. He criticizes any mode of thought that is closed to speculation or theory about possibility. Philosophizing allows us to see ordinary things in unfamiliar light. By exercising curiosity, we enlarge our sense of the world and our sense of wonder when we abandon the "tyranny of custom." Here, as elsewhere, Russell sounds a note that echoes the famous Socratic dictum: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

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