Pt. 4: Check Your Answers.

You ever have one of those moments where you give a really good comeback, only to have your moment of victory ruined because you forgot to proofread?

Interesting how a little flaw can ruin a statement. But sometimes the flaw isn't just some surface-level grammatical snafu. Sometimes it's something much deeper.

We love those profound one-liners. Short, sweet, and stimulating. Phrases like “It’s about the journey, not the destination” or “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” We find them all over the place: books, commercials, classroom posters, bumper stickers, profile pages, mini-blogs and status updates. When it comes to structuring our argument for truth, our beliefs about life, we often include these popular quotes and adages in our building. But in perusing these thoughtful sayings you should keep an eye out for “the suicide tactic.”

Commonly known as self-refuting views, these ideas defeat themselves -- or commit suicide. Take the following for example: “All English sentences are false.” The statement is about all English sentences, including itself. This is a suicide statement because in order for it to be true, it has to be false. Here’s a few more:

I never, never repeat a word. Never.
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Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.

Some say that all truth is relative. "Everybody is right in their own way." But if that’s true, then isn’t that statement itself relative? What if I don’t think that everyone is right, what if I think only a few people are right and everyone else is wrong…am I wrong for thinking that? If yes, then it’s not true that everyone is right in his own way. If no, then it’s not true that everyone is right in their own way. When statements fail to meet their own criteria of validity, they are self-refuting:

There is no truth. (Is that true?)
You can’t know anything for sure. (Are you sure?)
Nothing is at it seems. (Is that as it seems?)
No one can know the truth about religion. (Is that a truth about religion?)

You might wonder why anyone would believe self-refuting ideas. Very few people knowingly affirm contradictions, but when contradictions are implicit, embedded in the larger idea, they are harder to see. This is why people are taken in by them. Everyone is at risk for believing in false ideas, therefore everyone should take the same caution. The same way we review our writing for mistakes, we need to employ the same scrutiny in reviewing our thinking for mistakes.

As you continue to build your view of the world, be sure to check your answers.

This is part 4 of the "Do Your Homework" series