To him, they were not abstract or theoretical, they were personal. He believed that the most worthwhile intellectual questions are the fundamental questions of human nature, human destiny and the meaning of life. Ernest opposed the assumption fostered by Erik Erikson's school that the self-probing questions of adolescents are symptoms of identity anxiety. He rejected an ideal of human development which suggests that fundamental doubt and questions are symptoms of immaturity which should end by the beginning of adult life. He believed cosmic questions are the manifestations of a natural curiosity about the world.
Society fears fundamental questioning and represses it.
Every society programs its members with a ready-made set of ideologies and codes of conduct which serve the dominant social interests. Fundamental questioning is dangerous because it could spread a contagion of doubt that would undermine blind loyalty to social authority. Ernest did not want to be an ideologue for society. He encouraged free critical thinking in his students, and as a result, made many enemies among the faculty and administration. Ernest's passion for ultimate questions brought him into a deadly battle with the rising tide of empiricists who were taking over the social sciences and psychiatry.