Picking holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty

From The Portable Enlightenment Reader edited by Isaac Kramnick.  An excerpt by the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid (1710-1796) who was one of the principal critics of Lockean sensationalist and Humean skeptical theories of the mind.  In this instance, he is discussing Locke.

The day-laborer toils at his work, in the belief that he shall receive his wages at night; and, if he had not this belief, he would not toil. We may venture to say, that even the author of this skeptical system wrote it in the belief that it should be read and regarded. I hope he wrote it in the belief also that it would be useful to mankind; and, perhaps, it may prove so at last. For I conceive the skeptical writers to be a set of men whose business it is to pick holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty; and, when these places are properly repaired, the whole building becomes more firm and solid than it was formerly. 

 

Picking holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty is a marvelous description of the Age of Enlightenment enterprise.