I’ve certainly had many tough choices that were not preceded by disappointment, so I can’t relate to the premise at all.
As a comment on English usage, I’m not sure about the intended meaning of “I think this is so obvious that it’s most certainly true in most situations”. When taken literally, qualifiers such as “I think” are redundant. You wrote it, so you thought it. In practice they are used to reduce the expressed confidence of a statement. However, then you go on to say “it’s obvious”, and “most certainly true” which are extreme statements of high confidence. Then you weaken it again with the qualifier “most situations” which contradicts the phrasing in the opening sentence “[...] always preceded by a disappointment.”
I am left with contradictory information about how strongly you believe this hypothesis, which rather defeats the whole point of an epistemic status.
I’ve certainly had many tough choices that were not preceded by disappointment, so I can’t relate to the premise at all.
As a comment on English usage, I’m not sure about the intended meaning of “I think this is so obvious that it’s most certainly true in most situations”. When taken literally, qualifiers such as “I think” are redundant. You wrote it, so you thought it. In practice they are used to reduce the expressed confidence of a statement. However, then you go on to say “it’s obvious”, and “most certainly true” which are extreme statements of high confidence. Then you weaken it again with the qualifier “most situations” which contradicts the phrasing in the opening sentence “[...] always preceded by a disappointment.”
I am left with contradictory information about how strongly you believe this hypothesis, which rather defeats the whole point of an epistemic status.
A very good point, thanks. I will try to improve on that.
The next time I write a sentence with so many qualifiers, I should probably just write „not sure“.