“Might the scientific approach be nothing but fear, flight from pessimism? A subtle form of self-defense against-  the truth? And, morally speaking, something like cowardice and falsehood? Amorally speaking, a piece of cunning? Oh Socrates, Socrates, was that, perhaps, your secret? Oh, secretive ironist, was that, perhaps, your- irony?”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy