Dear Dr. Loeb,

I fully share your enthusiasm for the scientific method, but as a (retired) professor in the humanities, I can see that you are missing Rilke’s point. He is not referring to “How does it work?” questions—the kind addressed by scientists— but to “What does it mean?” questions—questions of value. Whereas scientific (how does it work?) questions require monological analysis to yield answers—observation,measurement, testing causal hypotheses, etc.—questions of value are inherently dialogical. And this requires something very different from your line of work (scientific inquiry). As one philologist (Richard McKeon of the University of Chicago put it, “If you say something and I ask you what it means, you have two choices: repeat what you’ve said or say something else.” The first option is tautological and goes nowhere; the second opens up a dialogue, with no easy or final answers. That.is the kind of question Rilke was talking about.