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Christopher M Bellitto

Professor of History, Kean University in Union, New Jersey

Christopher M Bellitto, PhD, is professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. His latest book, from which this essay is adapted, is Humility: The Secret History of a Lost Virtue (Georgetown University Press, 2023).

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Written by Christopher M Bellitto

A young girl, seen from the back, in a museum in China stands before a huge, oval multicoloured image of ‘fossil’ microwave radiation

Virtues and vices

idea

The medieval notion that shows why even experts should be humble

Nicholas of Cusa and others saw the importance of ‘learned ignorance’ or recognising there is always something more to learn

by Christopher M Bellitto