I'm an Absolutist, Even When I Know I'm Wrong

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I cant help it.

I know there is an entire spectrum, an entire degree flux, but I paint black and white, all or nothing.

Talk about a tendency that won’t go away, even when you know it should.

I only play the balanced viewpoint when it compels advatage, but still, I come home to the comfort of the ultimate end.

I am not loyal to change, even when I know change is the one constant.

This is my confession. It has meant nothing. Or perhaps, everything. I know nothing about it. I know all about it.

If you ask me about it, I am mute, or else I will talk your ear off.

2

Was that supposed to be like a first person narrative as every human being in existence?

If so, =D>

3

dichotomy is sometimes the right way to go about things,
but more often than not, an accurate epistemology built off of dichotomy is impossible because language has a way of contradicting itself when put under a magnifying glass.

Nobody really thinks completely in dichotomy, everyone thinks in a spectrum to some extent (otherwise there would be no way of solving a problems other than trial and error, unless you were able to view the problem in a spectrum of possible solutions).
There are just some people who think in a wider spectrum than others.

As far as being an “absolutist”, I don’t think that absolutists really need to think in terms of “black or white”, “right or wrong”, but instead they simply poison the well (disagree with everything that is being said just because they don’t like the person saying it or because they don’t want to be wrong) instead of admitting to being wrong. In an argument, they will keep coming up with more and more excuses to explain why they were originally right, until eventually they make an excuse that can’t be proven (such as “because God made it that way” or “no you are all wrong and it isn’t possible for you to understand why you are wrong”).

They don’t care if their claims that they made in the past end up contradicting their current claims, because for them it is all a matter of “avoid being wrong no matter what”. They are terrified of being wrong.

Is that what you meant by absolutist?

4

really?

it seems to me the riddle of life forces people into and imprisons them in the dichotomy, for they only see either/or

i am either alive, or i am not, and thus the little one asks himself:–“so is that it? that all there is? and me, from dust to dust?”

and even many who claim to understand ‘grey areas’ and the like - they to me seem merely feigning and half-understanding

at bottom they cling tirelessly to either/or, and i cling as i type this

one remains in one’s own prison until one overcomes the riddle of life, or that which he is