4 ms·
I thought yams and sweet potatoes were the same thing for many years. I have told people that they were the same thing, because that is what I believed. My tho
by georgyo 4y ago
I thought yams and sweet potatoes were the same thing for many years. I have told people that they were the same thing, because that is what I believed.
My thoughts were reinforced that in common American English we refer to both with the same name frequently.
However they are different, and I eventually was corrected and I was able to verify that correction.
The question is, when I legitimately believe my knowledge was correct, was I lying?
- kerkeslager 4y agoI would say no. If you believe what you said, you're not lying. There are grey areas here, like levels of confidence in our knowledge. A rational person believes very few things with 100% certainty, but it's not reasonable to be paralyzed by even the slightest amount of doubt and never say anything. I think a reasonable approach is to state things with some indication of your level of confidence, like: 1. Obviously sweet potatoes are yams. 2. Sweet potatoes are yams. 3. I am pretty sure sweet potatoes are yams. 4. I think sweet potatoes are yams. 5. I think sweet potatoes are yams, but I'm not sure. 6. I think sweet potatoes are yams, but I don't really know why I think that. 7. Sweet potatoes might be yams.