Ahh, nothing like discussing the value of strength with somebody named Weedlayer. Seriously, how can a quote be too strong?
Only if you’re using some definition of happiness that includes a term like “Philosophical fulfillment” or some such, which makes the issue tautological.
No, if you define happiness internally (ie something that you feel but others cannot observe) then you can justify the statement based on personal experience and relationship to the person the quote is addressed to.
How do you define happiness? Are you willing to argue about the definition of happiness just so you end up not being happy?
Primarily, by pretending that a “usually” is an “always”. “Real success is never accidental” is, empirically, definitely false. “Real success is almost never accidental” would be the less strong, but more correct, version.
On the other hand, this objection can be applied to a very large fraction of rationality quotes. I’m not sure it matters much, when we’re essentially just collecting proverbs, and including all the necessary caveats for perfect technical accuracy tends to take away the punchiness that makes proverbs worth collecting.
Primarily, by pretending that a “usually” is an “always”. “Real success is never accidental” is, empirically, definitely false. “Real success is almost never accidental” would be the less strong, but more correct, version.
That would depend on what you mean by success now wouldn’t it? If you believe people who take calculated risks and get unlucky aren’t successful, then perhaps you’re right. But you can’t claim you can make a statement more correct by assuming you know what every word means. Parsing ambiguity is part of rationality. (Though my downvotes would indicate it’s not...)
Ahh, nothing like discussing the value of strength with somebody named Weedlayer. Seriously, how can a quote be too strong?
No, if you define happiness internally (ie something that you feel but others cannot observe) then you can justify the statement based on personal experience and relationship to the person the quote is addressed to.
How do you define happiness? Are you willing to argue about the definition of happiness just so you end up not being happy?
Primarily, by pretending that a “usually” is an “always”. “Real success is never accidental” is, empirically, definitely false. “Real success is almost never accidental” would be the less strong, but more correct, version.
On the other hand, this objection can be applied to a very large fraction of rationality quotes. I’m not sure it matters much, when we’re essentially just collecting proverbs, and including all the necessary caveats for perfect technical accuracy tends to take away the punchiness that makes proverbs worth collecting.
That would depend on what you mean by success now wouldn’t it? If you believe people who take calculated risks and get unlucky aren’t successful, then perhaps you’re right. But you can’t claim you can make a statement more correct by assuming you know what every word means. Parsing ambiguity is part of rationality. (Though my downvotes would indicate it’s not...)