I’ve gotta vent a little about communication norms.
My psychiatrist recommended a new drug. I went to take it last night. The pills are absolutely huge and make me gag. But I noticed that the pills look like they can be “unscrewed” and the powder comes out.
So I asked the following question (via chat in this app we use):
For the NAC, the pill is a little big and makes me gag. Is it possible to twist it open and pour the powder on my tongue? Or put it in water and drink it?
The psychiatrist responded:
Yes it seems it may be opened and mixed into food or something like applesauce
The main thing I object to is the language “it seems”. Instead, I think “I can confirm” would be more appropriate.
I think that it is—here and frequently elsewhere—a mott-and-bailey. The bailey being “yes, I confirm that you can do this” and the mott being “I didn’t say it’d definitely be ok, just that it seems like it’d be ok”.
Well, that’s not quite right. I think it’s more subtle than that. If consuming the powder lead to issues, I do think the psychiatrist would take responsibility, and be held responsible if there any sort of legal thing, despite the fact that she used the qualifier “it seems”. So I don’t think that she consciously was trying to establish a motte that she can retreat to if challenged. Rather, I think it is more subconscious and habitual.
This seems like a bad epistemic habit though. Or, perhaps I should say, I’m pretty confident that it is a bad epistemic habit. I guess I have some work to do in countering it as well.
Here’s another example. I listen to the Thinking Basketball podcast. I notice that the cohost frequently uses the qualifier “necessarily”. As in, “Myles Turner can’t necessarily create his own shot”. What he means by that is “Myles Turner isn’t very good at creating his own shot”. This too I think is mostly habitual and subconscious, as opposed to being a conscious attempt to establish a motte that he can retreat to.
The way the psychiatrist phrased it made me mentally picture that they weren’t certain, went to review the information on the pill, and came back to relay their findings based on their research, if that helps with possible connotations. The extended implied version would be “I do not know. I am looking it up. The results of my looking it up are that, yes, it may be opened and mixed into food or something like applesauce.”
Your suggested replacement is in contrast has a light layer of the connotation “I know this, and answer from my own knowledge,” though less so than just stating “It may be opened and mixed into food or something like applesauce.” without the prelude.
From my perspective, the more cautious and guarded language might have been precisely what they meant to say, and has little to do with a fallacy. I am not so confident that you are observing a bad epistemic habit.
Ah, I see. That makes sense and changes my mind about what the psychiatrist probably meant. Thanks.
(Although it begs the new complaint of “I’m asking because I want confirmation not moderate confidence and you’re the professional who is supposed to provide the confirmation to me”, but that’s a separate thing.)
I’ve gotta vent a little about communication norms.
My psychiatrist recommended a new drug. I went to take it last night. The pills are absolutely huge and make me gag. But I noticed that the pills look like they can be “unscrewed” and the powder comes out.
So I asked the following question (via chat in this app we use):
The psychiatrist responded:
The main thing I object to is the language “it seems”. Instead, I think “I can confirm” would be more appropriate.
I think that it is—here and frequently elsewhere—a mott-and-bailey. The bailey being “yes, I confirm that you can do this” and the mott being “I didn’t say it’d definitely be ok, just that it seems like it’d be ok”.
Well, that’s not quite right. I think it’s more subtle than that. If consuming the powder lead to issues, I do think the psychiatrist would take responsibility, and be held responsible if there any sort of legal thing, despite the fact that she used the qualifier “it seems”. So I don’t think that she consciously was trying to establish a motte that she can retreat to if challenged. Rather, I think it is more subconscious and habitual.
This seems like a bad epistemic habit though. Or, perhaps I should say, I’m pretty confident that it is a bad epistemic habit. I guess I have some work to do in countering it as well.
Here’s another example. I listen to the Thinking Basketball podcast. I notice that the cohost frequently uses the qualifier “necessarily”. As in, “Myles Turner can’t necessarily create his own shot”. What he means by that is “Myles Turner isn’t very good at creating his own shot”. This too I think is mostly habitual and subconscious, as opposed to being a conscious attempt to establish a motte that he can retreat to.
The way the psychiatrist phrased it made me mentally picture that they weren’t certain, went to review the information on the pill, and came back to relay their findings based on their research, if that helps with possible connotations. The extended implied version would be “I do not know. I am looking it up. The results of my looking it up are that, yes, it may be opened and mixed into food or something like applesauce.”
Your suggested replacement is in contrast has a light layer of the connotation “I know this, and answer from my own knowledge,” though less so than just stating “It may be opened and mixed into food or something like applesauce.” without the prelude.
From my perspective, the more cautious and guarded language might have been precisely what they meant to say, and has little to do with a fallacy. I am not so confident that you are observing a bad epistemic habit.
Ah, I see. That makes sense and changes my mind about what the psychiatrist probably meant. Thanks.
(Although it begs the new complaint of “I’m asking because I want confirmation not moderate confidence and you’re the professional who is supposed to provide the confirmation to me”, but that’s a separate thing.)