Can’t we just hold it?

[coberst]

Can’t we just hold it?

Accept or reject are not the only options one has. The most important and generally overlooked, especially by the young, is the option to ‘hold’.

It appears to me that many young people consider that ‘to be negative is to be cool’. This leads them into responding that ‘X is false’ when responding to an OP that states that ‘X is true’.

When a person takes a public position affirming or denying the truth of ‘Y’ they are often locking themselves into a difficult position. If their original position was based on opinion rather than judgment their ego will not easily allow them to change position once they have studied and analyzed ‘Y’.

The moral of this story is that holding a default position of ‘reject or accept’, when we are ignorant, is not smart because our ego will fight any attempt to modify the opinion with a later judgment. Silence, or questions directed at comprehending the matter under consideration, is the smart decision for everyone’s default position.

Our options are reject, accept, and hold. I claim that ‘hold’ is the most important and should be the most often used because everyone is ignorant of almost everything.

Do you accept, reject, or hold judgment regarding my claim?

[Valheru]

Reject, because you're creating a paradox to your statement by stating it via a bifurcation.

NEXT!

[BioBeing]

Given that most of us on this particular board are not what I would call "young", then your OP fails ;)

However, I would agree that in general people are not comfortable enough in saying "I don't know". We have to have an a opinion. And that isn't just my opinion, that is fact. :D

So I agree with the OP. Because there is also a tendency to want to jump in and say "Yes, me too!".

So I don't know... I'll hold. :confused:

[DMB]

I don't think we have just two choices or even three. Things can be true "up to a point" or consistent with current facts without being absolutely true for all time. The latter position would apply to anything scientific, which is only ever provisionally true until/unless refuted by contradictory evidence.

But I'm not sure exactly what "hold" means. Does it mean suspending judgement? Sometimes that is an appropriate response, but sometimes we need to be able to make decisions or take actions and it is very rare that we can have the luxury of doing so on the basis of rock-solid information.

[Alex]

Sometimes we have to make decisions based on incomplete information. Suspending judgment or "holding" isn't necessarily a virtue. There is no "default position"; everything depends on the circumstances.

[BigEvil]

Sometimes we have to make decisions based on incomplete information. Suspending judgment or "holding" isn't necessarily a virtue. There is no "default position"; everything depends on the circumstances.

Ditto

(I hope Coberst doesn't repost his "Are we all just Dittoheads?" in response.

[coberst]

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Freud and Darwin are frauds.
God made me.
You are driving too fast.

When faced with these statements does it matter which of the three buttons ‘accept, reject, or hold’ that you push?

Just what impact does a decision of 'reject or accept' have on my future considerations?

It is my assumption that such a decision causes me to either stop or at least to slow down any further consideration of the matter. It appears to me that many of our conclusions are “worked out” within our unconscious, especially while we sleep.

Our educational system is designed around the basic premise that the students will accept what is told to them and that this acceptance is very important for their future welfare and for the welfare of the community.

[Notta]

As a former science teacher, my teaching was all about the evidence and thinking through observations and data, not just 'accept what is told'.

Even math is being taught by having students try to figure out the relationship between numbers and not 'being told' every single little concept.

[BigEvil]

Accept, reject or hold? Things are simply not that clear cut. There are many different levels and kinds of acceptances and rejections. There are many different types of holds for that matter. There is not accepting or rejecting due to not having enough information, having more time for consideration, or simply not caring. I think your basic premise is wrong.

And I disagree with the premise that our educational system is just basic memorization.