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The therapist said "absolutely" sure. Here is the definition: absolute 1. not qualified or diminished in any way; total. 2. viewed or existing

The therapist said "absolutely" sure. Here is the definition: absolute 1. not qualified or diminished in any way; total. 2. viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative. Whether the therapist meant within a certain context or not, by saying "absolutely sure", she/he precluded that possibility. So, the therapist did overreact, (and considering it is a routine question in order to determine whether to commit someone, it is a systemic overreaction as well).

proc0 11y ago
Ok, so lets be pedantically logical. "Absolutely" is qualifying the word "sure". The definition of sure is: Sure: confident in what one thinks or knows; having no doubt that one is right. So to be 'absolutely sure' means you are totally 100% confident in your thinking, but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future. You can be sure of something and still be proven wrong. The therapist did not say "are you absolutely certain you will not under any circumstances kill yourself", she just asked if in her mind and from her perspective, she had the confidence of not killing herself (regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening).
- reddytowns 11y ago
  First, there are a couple of straw man arguments here. I never said that "absolutely sure" meant you are predicting the future. I also never said that it was equivalent to "are you absolutely certain you will not under any circumstances kill yourself". But besides that, you said that "absolutely" qualifies "sure", which I agree with, and this seems to indicate that you have an idea of what a qualification is. It modifies, or limits something. Now, let me repeat definition 1 of "absolute": "not qualified or diminished in any way; total". In your two interpretations: * "'absolutely sure' means you are totally 100% confident in your thinking, but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future", and * "she just asked if in her mind and from her perspective, she had the confidence of not killing herself (regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening)," both contain qualifiers. In the first case you substitute "sure" with "confident in your thinking", but you still qualify it with "but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future" In the second case, you substitute "sure" with just "confident", and then qualify it twice: * ...if in her mind and from her perspective... * ...(regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening)... Finally, in your first post, you said "[the therapist is] asking it within a certain context", which is also a qualification. It seems to me that you are taking what the therapist said and interpreting in ways your brain can understand without paying precise attention to meaning, as indicated by your substitutions of the word "sure", three separate interpretations (across both posts) and not describing at all how the meaning of the individual words relate to each other, despite your attempt to be "pedantically logical". Therefore, I think you are a normal person, and do not get where the author is coming from. In the future, I wouldn't be so quick to tear down the ideas of perspectives you do not understand.
  - proc0 11y ago
    I meant the therapist wasn't asking the patient to predict the future by asking if she was sure, as the author suggests (by thinking 'absolutely' meant in case of any event, or under any circumstances, even if the apocalypse happened). I'm just illustrating the logic behind 'absolutely sure'. I think the therapist's question is logically sound, even under scrutiny because "sure" is basically a subjective perspective, therefore it is possible to be absolutely sure, because you can search within you to see if that absoluteness exists. That's why I thought the author of the article was stretching it a bit much, and her premise of "being too academic" doesn't hold for me in that example. I get what she means, but I guess those were bad examples, and exemplify that she probably has English as a second language, rather than her thinking being too academic. I guess I'm not convinced because if anything, being too academic should give you the tools to completely dissect someone else's message, rather than not understanding it properly.

proc0 11y ago

Ok, so lets be pedantically logical. "Absolutely" is qualifying the word "sure". The definition of sure is: Sure: confident in what one thinks or knows; having no doubt that one is right. So to be 'absolutely sure' means you are totally 100% confident in your thinking, but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future. You can be sure of something and still be proven wrong. The therapist did not say "are you absolutely certain you will not under any circumstances kill yourself", she just asked if in her mind and from her perspective, she had the confidence of not killing herself (regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening).

reddytowns 11y ago
First, there are a couple of straw man arguments here. I never said that "absolutely sure" meant you are predicting the future. I also never said that it was equivalent to "are you absolutely certain you will not under any circumstances kill yourself". But besides that, you said that "absolutely" qualifies "sure", which I agree with, and this seems to indicate that you have an idea of what a qualification is. It modifies, or limits something. Now, let me repeat definition 1 of "absolute": "not qualified or diminished in any way; total". In your two interpretations: * "'absolutely sure' means you are totally 100% confident in your thinking, but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future", and * "she just asked if in her mind and from her perspective, she had the confidence of not killing herself (regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening)," both contain qualifiers. In the first case you substitute "sure" with "confident in your thinking", but you still qualify it with "but this does not necessarily mean you are predicting the future" In the second case, you substitute "sure" with just "confident", and then qualify it twice: * ...if in her mind and from her perspective... * ...(regardless of any unforeseen circumstances of say the apocalypse happening)... Finally, in your first post, you said "[the therapist is] asking it within a certain context", which is also a qualification. It seems to me that you are taking what the therapist said and interpreting in ways your brain can understand without paying precise attention to meaning, as indicated by your substitutions of the word "sure", three separate interpretations (across both posts) and not describing at all how the meaning of the individual words relate to each other, despite your attempt to be "pedantically logical". Therefore, I think you are a normal person, and do not get where the author is coming from. In the future, I wouldn't be so quick to tear down the ideas of perspectives you do not understand.
- proc0 11y ago
  I meant the therapist wasn't asking the patient to predict the future by asking if she was sure, as the author suggests (by thinking 'absolutely' meant in case of any event, or under any circumstances, even if the apocalypse happened). I'm just illustrating the logic behind 'absolutely sure'. I think the therapist's question is logically sound, even under scrutiny because "sure" is basically a subjective perspective, therefore it is possible to be absolutely sure, because you can search within you to see if that absoluteness exists. That's why I thought the author of the article was stretching it a bit much, and her premise of "being too academic" doesn't hold for me in that example. I get what she means, but I guess those were bad examples, and exemplify that she probably has English as a second language, rather than her thinking being too academic. I guess I'm not convinced because if anything, being too academic should give you the tools to completely dissect someone else's message, rather than not understanding it properly.