I’ve also been accused of trying to “trap” people into contradicting themselves. This concept confused me for a long time; if they have inconsistent beliefs, how can that be my fault? But I think I’ve figured it out: This happens when we’re discussing a topic that they haven’t put much thought into, and they’re figuring out their beliefs as they go along.
It may be your fault.
It’s not necessarily that ideas aren’t well thought out, it’s that they implicitly have some limits that are not explicitly stated. If someone deliberately chooses to ignore those implicit limits in order to find a contradiction, that’s their fault for deliberately misunderstanding. And it’s possible to deliberately misunderstand by being literal about something which you know is not supposed to be literal. That’s what people mean by trapping.
And if you just don’t understand those implicit limits, then you’re not trying to trap them, but you’re clueless in a way whose effects resemble trying to trap someone.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening in the situations I’m thinking about, but I’m not sure. Do you have an example dialogue that demonstrates someone taking a belief literally when it obviously wasn’t intended that that way?
It may be your fault.
It’s not necessarily that ideas aren’t well thought out, it’s that they implicitly have some limits that are not explicitly stated. If someone deliberately chooses to ignore those implicit limits in order to find a contradiction, that’s their fault for deliberately misunderstanding. And it’s possible to deliberately misunderstand by being literal about something which you know is not supposed to be literal. That’s what people mean by trapping.
And if you just don’t understand those implicit limits, then you’re not trying to trap them, but you’re clueless in a way whose effects resemble trying to trap someone.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening in the situations I’m thinking about, but I’m not sure. Do you have an example dialogue that demonstrates someone taking a belief literally when it obviously wasn’t intended that that way?