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April 15: In general, I try not to make philosophically autocratic statements. For instance, I won't say Freudianism is utter crap, I'll say that in my opinion it is severely flawed (though not utter crap). I consider myself a continuumist. Leastways, I try to be one. But sometimes such a statement is appropriate, such as the statement that our world was not created the way the Bible says it was. That is an objective fact. Which means, for me, that the odds against its being wrong are greater than a quadrillion to point oh oh one. It is thus what I call "an effectual absolute," which is as close as you can get to an absolute truth. It can also be called "an objective truth."
The reason I bring this up is that it recently crossed my mind that there are lesser truths that I might allow one to state without adding that they are merely one's opinion. There are two of these in particular. Naturally, I want to classify and name them, but I haven't been able to yet. The first is the kind of statement that is valid beyond reasonable doubt, like the fact that Shakespeare was Shakespeare. I would say such a statement is an order of magnitude or more less certain to be true than an effectual absolute, but still pretty danged true. I feel it would be okay to treat such a statement as a semi-aboslute, though maybe to be polite call it your opinion, anyway. Hence, I usually say that I believe that it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that Shakespeare was Shakespeare.
The second kind of statement is trickier. It has to do with--I guess you might call them, "subjective universals," or "subjective absolutes." "Shakespeare was a great playwright," would be an example--usually expressed implicitly, as when someone excuses a mixed metaphor, say, by pointing out that Shakespeare used them. I suppose it's all right to use such statements without identifying them as opinions--but one should be aware that they are arguable--as effectual absolutes and semi-absolutes are not.
I would agree that always responsibly letting a reader know when one is expressing an opinion can seem over-academic, timid, even annoying. But never doing so can seem over-arrogant and stupid. Better, in my opinion, to risk the former, mainly because it will help keep you mindful of your subjectivity.
That's all for today. Blame it on the wind I had to fight riding my bike home from another substituting assignment. It put something in my right eye, which didn't help. (My contacts make me susceptible to the grit in the Florida air.) A ride that usually takes me around 40 minutes took me a full hour.
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