Being a post-positivist is exhausting: The daunting commitment to an uncertain truth

摘要

It is exhausting being a post-positivist. We believe that there is truth out there, but we can only know it imperfectly. We are driven to searching, gathering more information, questioning our biases, and trying to take other perspectives. We never actually find peace and cannot rest from our perpetual wondering and second-guessing. Dealing with relentless ambiguity and the pursuit of truth is psychologically draining. We are prisoners of an unending quest: like Ulysses, we hear the irresistible siren voices calling us to believe that we have the truth but have restrained ourselves from falling prey to their ephemeral pleasures. We are forced to eat the unholy gruel of incomplete knowledge and pervasive uncertainty. I’m weary from the struggle.