SeahorseTrebleWhat is the best way to respond to "You have an answer for everything", "You always have to be right", or "You always need to have the last word"?
Is it valid criticism? Do you focus more on winning the argument than finding the truth?
Well that’s another thing I was wondering. What if you already know what the truth is? I’m open to having my beliefs challenged or reassessing my conclusions about what the truth is, but if that’s not happening, and you’re still confident that your position is correct, then is maintaining your position really such a bad thing? And, what would the alternative be; surely not to pretend to admit defeat when you don’t really believe that? (I feel like that sets a bad precedent)
You don’t know what the true truth is, no one does; you only have your own. You need the truth of others to focus your views closer to the real truth. Say you already know what the truth is closes you off to the possibility of growth regardless of what you say, and makes it pointless to have a debate.
That’s interesting, but I feel like that means we can’t make any kind of assessments or conclusions about anything, when it also seems like we have to in order to live our lives in the absence of 100% knowing something definitively. I also think some things can be known to be objectively true, such as the number of people inside a building (as an example).
For example, if we’ve been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that something is true or most likely true, but a person is arguing with us that it’s not (you might say “arguing that black is white”), we can be open to being proven wrong despite doubting that it will happen, but should we really not pursue a line of dialogue just because we think we’re probably correct?
I can see how saying I know what the truth is might turn people off more than just conversing about it, so I probably wouldn’t say that to them, but is being fairly confident in what you’re saying a reason not to say it?
There has been one constant in my life: the older I get the more I understand that few things are objectively true/scientifically proven and (while I do hope that number grows) the more I realize the importance of being comfortable with uncertainty. Not only uncertainty about particular facts, but about my positions on stuff being right.